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THE RELATION 



OF 



ANIMAL DISEASES TO THE 
PUBLIC HEALTH. 



AND THEIR PREVENTION, 



BY 

FKANK S. BILLINGS, IX Y. S. y 

GRADUATE OP THE ROYAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE OF BERLIN; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL VETERINARY 

ASSOCIATION OF THE PBOTINOE OF BRANDENBURG; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE 

VETERINARY SOCIETY OF MONTREAL, CANA3>A, ETC, 



/£ 



- 






1884//} 
birn P. 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

1, 3, and 5 BOND STREET. 
1884. 



■<#»> 



Copyright, 1884, 
Bt D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 



IN MEMORY OP 

ANDREAS CHRISTIAN GERLACH, 

LATE DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL TETERINARY INSTITUTE, 
BERLIN, PRUSSIA, 

TO WHOSE EXAMPLE, LOVE, AND SYMPATHY 

THE AUTHOR OWES WHAT LITTLE ABILITY HE POSSESSES, 

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 



PEEFAOE. 



This book is written for the benefit of the people of the 
United States. Its purpose is to introduce to every thinking 
man and woman of the country a new subject, the higher pur- 
poses of Veterinary Medicine. It is a work which treats of the 
Prevention of Diseases, not their Treatment. While at times 
the language of the author may appear unnecessarily severe to 
the casual reader, he should not forget that the author is an 
enthusiast ; that he has given his life and energies to the sub- 
ject of the establishment of Veterinary Science in this country ; 
and that the evils so severely combated are not " straw men," 
the creations of a vivid imagination, but actual evils that, unless 
prevented, will work most serious injury to the country in the 
not distant future. All that the author asks is calm reflection 
and an honest verdict upon his work. 



OOISTTE^TS. 



PART I. 

PAGE 

Thk Diseases of Domestic Animals ...... 1 

Trichuriasis of Man and Animals . . . . . . 2 

The Intestinal Trichinae . ..... 11 

Trichuriasis in Swine . . . . . . . 15 

Trichinae in American Pork . . . . . . .18 

Examinations of American Pork ...... 20 

American Hogs much more infected than European . . . .26 

The Disease in Swine ....... 28 

Prevention of Trichiniasis in Swine . . . . . .31 

The Microscopic Examination of Pork . . . . . 32 

Objects which may be mistaken for Trichinae, or not recognized as such . 34 

Trichiniasis in Man . . . . . . . 35 

Prevention of the Disease in Man ...... 40 

Hog-Cholera ......... 41 

Etiology ......... 41 

Bacillus suis ........ 43 

Influence of Season and Temperature ...... 44 

Incubation ......... 45 

Pathological Anatomy . . . . . . . .47 

Microscopic Observations ....... 48 

Prevention of the Disease ....... 50 

Disease of Cattle . . . . . . . 52 

Tuberculosis in Cattle . . . . . . . .61 

Statistics as to its Prevalence . . . . . . 71 

Infection .......... 74 

Bacteria ......... 79 

Classification of Bacteria . . . . . . .80 

Distinction of Bacteria from Inorganic Objects . . . 84 

Dissemination of Bacteria in Different Media . . . . .86 

Nutrition of Bacteria ....... 86 

Reproduction of Bacteria ....... 88 

Reproduction by Spores ....... 89 

The Action of Bacteria with reference to Contagious and Virulent Diseases . 89 
Dispersion of Bacteria and their Entrance into the Animal Organism . 94 

Infection of the Animal Organism . . . . . .98 

Disinfection ........ 100 



vm 



CONTENTS., 



The Diseases of Domestic Animals: 
Anthrax and Anthracoid Diseases 

History .... 

Etiology 

Nature of the Infectious Elements 

Appearance and Extension . 

Phenomena of the Disease 

Pathological Anatomy 

Prognosis 

Diagnosis 

Prevention 

Therapeutics . 

Immunity 
Anthrax in Man 

Etiology . 

Symptoms and Course 

Therapeutics 
Anthracoid Diseases 
Emphysema infectiosum 
Texas Fever of Cattle . 

Definition 

Etiology 

Stages of the Disease 

Phenomena during Life 

Post-mortal Phenomena 

Microscopic Examination 

Prophylaxis 
Diseases of the Dog 
Rabies 
Hydrophobia in France 

Phenomena of Canine Rabies 

Prevention 
Diseases of the Horse 
Glanders 

Transmission to other Animals 

Geographical Distribution 

Etiology . 

Tenacity of the Contagium . 

Natural Infection 

Disposition, Immunity 

Phenomenology . 

Duration of the Disease 
Acute Nasal Glanders 
Pulmonary or Chronic Glanders 

Pathological Anatomy 

Infiltrated Neoplasmatic Processes 

Diagnosis 

Prognosis 

Prevention 
Glanders in Man 

Cause 
Acute Glanders in Man 
Chronic Glanders in Man 



CONTENTS. 



PART II. 

PAGE 

History of Veterinary Medicine ...... 209 

The Establishment of the Veterinary Schools .... 263 

The Veterinary Schools of France ...... 264 

The Veterinary Institute at Vienna ..... 280 

Short Notices of the Schools of Belgium, Sweden, Russia, and Norway . 291 

The Schools of Germany ....... 299 

Stuttgart . . . . . . . . • • 299 

Hanover . . . . . . . . . 304 

Munich ......... 308 

The Veterinary Institutions of Prussia ..... 321 

The Prussian Laws for Suppression of Contagious Animal Diseases . . 340 

The Laws and Regulations for Rinderpest . . . . . 341 

Special Regulations to prevent the Introduction of the Rinderpest from 
Foreign Countries . . . . . . . .343 

Regulations with reference to Rinderpest in Germany . . . 344 
Regulations to be put in force after the Rinderpest has been declared 

ended ......... 347 

Restrictions with reference to Use of Animals having Contagious Diseases 350 

Anthrax ......... 351 

Contagious Pleuro-pneumonia ...... 355 

Glanders ......... 357 

Variola of Sheep ........ 360 

Rabies ......... 362 

Disinfectants ........ 364 



PART III. 

The Means of Prevention . . . . . . .368 

A National Veterinary Police System ...... 368 

The Foundation of Veterinary Schools in the United States . . . 390 

State Veterinary Schools ....... 415 

A National Veterinary Institute . . . . . . .419 



PART I. 
THE DISEASES OE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



The subject of the relation of animal diseases to the public 
health, while not by any means unknown to hygienists, is still one 
which has not until the last few years attracted the scientific study 
which its importance demands. This is mainly due to the practical 
tendency which has prevailed in all veterinary schools, and which 
has been pushed, to the undue neglect of scientific investigation. 
Thankfully, the day of the school empiric is fast drawing to a close, 
and the rising sun of scientific research is beginning to dispel the 
fogs of tradition and the apathy of self-content which has rested 
upon veterinary medicine. 

The day has come when veterinary medicine is beginning to 
make its power felt, and to take its true place as a scientific institu- 
tion among the nations of the world. 

"We have all been taught that the first commandment is "to 
have no other gods besides me." But without desiring to enter 
into the discussion of religious questions, the hygienist may say 
that, while this may be \erj important to the spiritual man, the 
earthy man has also certain positive responsibilities to himself, 
which find their expression in the command, " Man, know thyself." 
This commandment seems to be a stranger to the minds of most 
men, for how little do we know of the physiological laws which 
control that complicated machine, the animal organism, or of the 
means by which we can in a large measure prevent diseases, not 
only among ourselves, but among our animals ! The majority of 
our people assume that the nucleus of all knowledge is to be found 
somewhere in that record of Jewish history, the Christian Bible. 

With reference to the prevention of human diseases from causes 
to be sought in the animal world, either directly or indirectly, we 
find, however, but little of practical value in that book. The in- 



2 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

struetions of Moses to the Jews have far more to do with, certain 
superstitious ideas of the cleanliness or uncleanliness of certain spe- 
cies of animals as unfitting them for food than with any true 
knowledge of their non-hygienic character. Enthusiastic but blind 
worshipers have even gone so far as to assert that Moses must have 
known that trichinae existed in pork, hence his forbidding its use 
as food. But they do not stop to think that these parasites require 
a microscope for their detection, an instrument which was not known 
to man until thousands of years after the books of Moses were writ- 
ten. That the flesh of diseased animals was unfit for human food 
did not entirely escape the attention of the Israelitic legislator ; but 
his restrictive utterances were limited to his own people. He tells 
the chosen of the Lord that : " Ye shall not eat of anything that 
dieth of itself ; thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy 
gates, that he may eat it ; or thou may est sell it unto an alien • for 
thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God." — See Deut. xiv, 21. 

Numerous passages, which command that all blood must be re- 
moved from the body before using it, lead us to infer that all such 
articles were to be well cooked before being eaten, and that raw or 
underdone meats were an abomination to the Jews, as they should 
be to all people. 

Plutarch asks : "Why is it that the priests of Jupiter are forbid- 
den to touch raw flesh ? " And answers : " Raw flesh is no more a 
living creation, and is unfit to eat. Cooking gives it another form." 

Not only is human life endangered by the consumption of prod- 
ucts from previously diseased animals, or from the consumption of 
improperly cooked flesh, but quite a number of animal diseases are 
capable, by intentional or accidental means, of transmission to man. 
Yirchow has said that " man is far more susceptible to infection 
from animal diseases than the latter from similar diseases of man." 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 

There is, perhaps, no one disease of our domestic animals which 
enjoys a more sensational reputation, or which has been more thor- 
oughly investigated, than the disease of swine caused by the parasite 
trichina spiralis. There is none more worthy of the attention of the 
public or the hygienist. Although the literature* treating upon 

* The American student will find the best compilation that exists on this subject in 
the " Report on Trichinae and Trichinosis," Glazier. 1881. Published by the United 
States Marine-Hospital Service. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 3 

this disease is of comparatively modern date, still we have no justi- 
fiable reason for doubting the presence of these parasites in swine 
at a very early date, and also that the consecutive disease in man 
must have existed for years, if not centuries, before it came to sci- 
entific recognition ; I am inclined to think, almost coeval with the 
consumption of pork as food. In this opinion I find myself op- 
posed by many distinguished observers ; but the fact that trichinae 
were not discovered earlier than 1831 does not at all militate against 
my conclusions. They simply were not suspected. Every fact in 
connection with the history of the parasite — its minuteness, the un- 
certainty of its pathognomonic phenomena in man, and still more 
so in the hog, which render difficult the correct diagnosis of trichi- 
niasis — supports my hypothesis. 

Hiller * says : " The history of this disease can be appropriately 
divided into three periods, the first beginning with the discovery, 
or observation, of the capsule — the parasite not being recognized — 
in 1821-28, including the description of the same by Dr. Hilton, 
of Guy's Hospital, London, England, in 1835. 

" The second period extends from 1835, when Paget discovered 
the encapsulated parasite and Owen described it, giving to it its 
name, 'trichina spiralis,' to the first authentic observation of the 
disease in a human being, and the direct establishment of its con- 
nection with a parasitic disease of swine which took place in 1860. 

" This begins the third period in the history of trichina spiralis — 
the period of active scientific investigation — which is by no means 
at an end, and which awaits its conclusion in the discovery of the 
original source whence swine derive the parasite." 

In the mean time, Professor Leidy, of Philadelphia, was the first 
to discover the parasite in the flesh of the hog in 1867. It is a 
singular fact that this discovery should have been made by means 
of an American hog. 

The principal workers in this important field of helminthic re- 
search have been Owen, Cobbold, Bristow, and others, in Britain ; 
and Leuckart, Yirchow, Zenker, Kuchenmeister, and the veterinari- 
ans Gerlach and Fiirstenberg, in Germany. 

Cobbold f describes the parasite as follows : " Trichina spiralis is 
an extremely minute nematode helminth, the male in its fully de- 
veloped and sexually matured condition measuring only one eigh- 
teenth of an inch, while the perfectly developed female reaches a 
length of about one eighth ; body rounded and filiform, usually 
slightly bent on itself, rather thicker behind than in front, espe- 

* Ziemssen's " Encyclopaedia of Medicine," vol. iii. f " Entozoa," p. 335. 



4 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

cially in the males ; head narrow, finely pointed, unarmed, with a 
simple, central, minute oval aperture ; posterior extremity of the 
male furnished with a bilobed caudal appendage, the cloacal or 
anal aperture being situated between these divergent appendages ; 
penis consisting of a single spicule, cleft above, so as to assume a 
V-shaped outline ; female stouter than the male, bluntly rounded 
posteriorly, with genital outlet placed forward at about the end of the 
first fifth of the long diameter of the body. Eggs measuring T ^ l0 
of an inch from pole to pole ; mode of reproduction viviparous." 

" The shell-less ova develop into minute embryos immediately on 
fructification, and completely fill the uterus of the female, and are 
born in immense numbers." * " The embryos measure, previous to 
birth, about ten micrometres in length, and five to six in transverse 
diameter. The study of the structure of the embryo is almost im- 
possible so long as it is retained within the body of the maternal 
parasite. Here it resembles a delicate thread, having a somewhat 
uniform granular appearance, which becomes less distinct as devel- 
opment progresses. In the older embryos — extra-maternal — we 
may perceive a very delicate cuticle and an axial line running 
through the body ; the extremities are more or less blunt, and not 
easily to be distinguished as to which is the posterior or anterior 
end of the parasite. In the intestines the embryos measure about 
0*1 mm. in length, sometimes more, and have a transverse diameter 
of about 6 fi." (Pagenstecker.) 

" Within the abdominal cavity they may be found to measure 
from 0*12 to 0*16 mm. in length, with a transverse diameter of 8 fi. 
They have scarcely ever been seen less than 0*12 mm. in length 
when in the muscles. Comparison with mature trichinae indicates 
that the slenderer of the two extremities is the head." 

" The posterior extremity possesses more rigidity than the ante- 
rior, and also seems to have a backward and forward motion. The 
rigid condition of the terminal end of the parasitic embryo corre- 
sponds with the situation, or limits, of the axial line, which is looked 
upon as the rudimentary alimentary canal. The anterior portion of 
the embryo is not granulous, but clear, being only modified by a 
delicate chitin thread which is continuous with the cuticle, and con- 
stitutes the first indication of the chitinous lining of the oval cavity. 
As development progresses, this axial line divides into two parts ; 
the anterior portion corresponds to the so-called cell-body of the 
mature parasite, and the posterior to the stomach, intestines, etc. 
The sexual organs can not, as yet, be distinguished. The embryos 

* Leuckart, "Die menschlichen Parasiten," vol. ii, p. 512. 



TRICHURIASIS OF HAN AND ANIMALS. 5 

may be met with not only in the abdominal cavity of the autosite, 
but also in the thoracic and pericardial sac, and in such numbers 
that these places may be looked upon as normal resting-places for 
the embryos on their migrations over the infected organism. In 
general we find them far more numerously represented in the ab- 
dominal cavity, which corresponds exactly with our knowledge of 
their activity, for it is here that they must first come after passing 
the intestinal parietes on their migrations. From here they pass on 
to the other cavities by means of the natural openings, or ostia, 
through which the oesophagus and large vessels pass through the 
diaphragm. These vessels are loosely surrounded by connective 
tissue, which offers favorable conditions for the passage of the para- 
sites. From these cavities the embryos follow the course of the 
larger vessels and nerves over the body, the loose connective tissue 
offering the favorable conditions. The duration of the migratory 
period can not be determined with any great degree of accuracy ; 
but it is undoubtedly very short, as embryos have been found in 
the thoracic cavity, the pericardial sac, and adjoining muscles, as 
early as in the abdomen. The majority of observers seem to agree 
in considering the ninth or tenth day of invasion as terminating the 
migratory period — that is, when but a single invasion has taken 
place." 

" The embryos display no distinguishable changes either in size 
or structure during the period of migration. The first appreciable 
changes occur after they have reached the muscles, and have be- 
come lodged in their fibers." 

" When they have penetrated the fiber — that is, become intra- 
sarcolemmatous — the protoplasma of the muscle-cell undergoes cer- 
tain pathological changes, which exactly correspond to the fatty de- 
generation observed in parenchymatous myositis. A proliferation of 
the nuclei is quite common, if not an invariable phenomenon. Like 
all tissues which have undergone fatty degeneration of their plasma, 
such fibers are darker, less refracting, than those which have not 
been subjected to parasitic invasion. Such fibers lose their con- 
tractility. When cut transversely, the swollen parenchyma extends 
beyond the sarcolemmatous sheath, and if the trichina be near the 
section, it often extends free, or becomes free, with the protruded 
plasma. It is doubtful whether the trichinge live upon the elements 
of the plasma while lodged in the fiber, as they are in an appar- 
ently chrysalis condition. This fatty degeneration of the paren- 
chyma seems to offer no impediment to a second invasion of the 
fiber." 



6 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

" While previous to migration the embryo shows a somewhat 
slender form, it soon becomes thicker, or more rotund, its trans- 
verse diameter being nearly double that which it had before migra- 
tion. Its anterior portion becomes more slender and resembles that 
of the mature parasite. The posterior end becomes more blunt. 
Progressive changes also take place in the axial line, the different 
organs becoming distinct; especially is this the case in the cell- 
body. The primitive sexual gland is to be seen as an elongated 
sac ; the pointed anterior end extends beyond the stomach in the 
females, and turns abruptly backward in the males. The oval cav- 
ity has a proportionate length, and over its middle distinctly shows 
the first traces of a nervous system, which in the form of an oval 
enlargement, cervical ganglion, is to be distinguished from the cy- 
lindrical mass." 

" With the progressive development of the internal organs comes 
a corresponding increase of the external dimensions of the parasite. 
It increases more in length than thickness, and its previous rotund 
form becomes more slender. At the same time the body becomes 
curved, and after a while assumes an irregular, spiral position — 
trichina spiralis. They begin to assume this position the earliest in 
the larger fibers ; but it occurs in all, even when the lumen scarcely 
exceeds the transverse diameter of the parasite. In the vicinity 
of the parasite the sarcolemmatous sheath invariably becomes dis- 
tended, owing to the lateral pressure exerted by the parasite. The 
spindle shape of the tube is due to the elasticity of the sarcolemma ; 
but, as it becomes thicker and clouded, proliferation must take place 
as well. The intra-sarcolemmatous, or capsular, development of the 
parasite terminates in about three weeks from the time of its in- 
vasion of the fiber." 

" The enlargements of the sarcolemma — capsules — vary much 
in form and size. Sometimes they are far more cylindrical and 
elongated than at others, and again one end may be elongated and 
the other bluntly rounded." 

" The capsules are surrounded by a rete of capillaries, which can 
be injected. A growth in length and thickness, due to the irrita- 
tion caused by the parasite, gives them a very ramified character." 

In this condition the parasites are known as " muscle trichinae " ; 
but when in the intestines of an autosite, as " intestinal trichinae." 
In the first form they make their abode entirely in the striated, or 
motory, muscles — the flesh. They have not been met with in an 
encapsulated condition, either in the non-striated muscles or in 
purely adipose tissue. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 7 

While this seems to be the opinion of almost all observers, 
during my observations in 1879, and again in 1881, I frequently- 
found encapsuled trichinae in the midst of purely adipose tissue, 
between muscle-fibers of very fat hogs ; never, however, in the adi- 
pose tissue which lies upon musculature. Since then, other observ- 
ers have reported the same thing. In a letter, read at the ninth 
annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, held 
at Savannah, Georgia, in 1881, emanating from the Department of 
Agriculture, dated October 29, 1881, the author, with the custom- 
ary ignorance and consequent impudence of an American politician, 
says, in answer to the question, " Are trichinae found in the fat ? " 
" I have until now thought not. Professor Taylor, of this depart- 
ment, tells me that in the ' Journal of the Microscopical Associa- 
tion ' he has recently seen that they have been found in fat. I 
should rather see than believe without so doing" 

I think this is easily explained. The great amount of fatty in- 
filtration had caused absorption of the plasma, and atrophy of the 
fibers by compression, which was, however, resisted by the greater 
density of the sarcolemma in the vicinity of the parasite, and also 
by the latter itself. No other explanation seems to me possible, for 
the capsules were comparatively perfect. 

The encapsuled parasites may be met with in the striated mus- 
cles of all parts of the body, such as the digital muscles, those of 
the abdominal walls, of the extremities, the eye, the ear, the larynx 
and pharynx, the tongue, oesophagus, and the diaphragm ; but the 
heart seems to be a favored locality, for they have only been found 
in its flesh in very isolated cases. 

In making examinations of the oesophageal muscles of a rabbit 
that had been fed with infected pork, I was much struck with the 
abruptness with which I met trichinae, in passing in review a mi- 
croscopical section of the oesophageo-cardiac portion of the stomach, 
when one passed from the fibers proper to the stomach to those of 
the oesophagus ; in fact, trichinae could be seen in the striated fibers 
of the latter, where they intruded between the non-striated of the 
former ; but in no case were there any to be seen in the smooth, or 
inorganic fibers. 

These parasites are not, however, equally distributed over the 
musculature of the autosite, but, on the contrary, appear to have 
their favorite places of abode. They have a predilection for the 
muscles of the anterior part of the body; of these, those of the 
tongue, larynx and pharynx, and masticatory muscles are especially 
favored. The muscles of the rump are more profusely invaded 



8 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

than those of the extremities. Very few have been discovered in 
the tail of any animal. In the extremities, the parasites are found 
to be more abundant where the muscle-fibers begin to lose them- 
selves in their tendinous extension than in the body of the muscle. 
Numerous estimates have been published by different observers 
as to the percental invasion of the different muscle-groups, several 
of which may be given here. 

Microscopic specimens,* of an average length of two centimetres 
and a width of one centimetre, were taken from the flesh of several 
hogs which had been found trichinous. 

Eighty specimens taken from hog No. 1 gave the following : 

a. Pillars of diaphragm 12 trichinae. 

5. Muscles " 4 " 

c. " larynx 1 " 

d. " ribs None. 

e. " tongue " 

/. " neck " 

g. " eye and overarm " 

Sixty specimens from hog No. 2 : 

a. Pillars of diaphragm 10 trichina?. 

h. Muscles " 6 " 

c. " larynx 2 " 

d. " ribs None. 

e. " tongue " 

/• " eye 

g. " overarm and neck " 

Forty from hog No. 3 : 

a. Pillars of diaphragm 40 trichina?. 

5. Muscles " .... 25 " 

c. " larynx 4 " 

d. " ribs 6 " 

e. " tongue 8 " 

/. " neck, eye, and overarm 2 " 

Forty from hog No. 4 : 

a. Pillars of diaphragm 40 trichinae. 

1. Muscles " 30 " 

c. " larynx 10 " 

d. " ribs 10 " 

e. " tongue 6 " 

f. " overarm 2 " 

* " Mittheilungen aus. d. tliierarzliehen Praxis im Preussisehen Staate," 1877-"78 f 
p. 99. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 9 

According to Gerlach : * 

One grain of flesh taken from the 

Psoas muscle contained 161 trichinae. 

Diaphragm muscle " 129 " 

Laryngeal " " 126 " 

Tongue " " 105 " 

Orbital " " 64 " 

Abdominal " " 54 " 

Masseter " " 45 " 

Lips, near snout " 43 " 

Serratus magnns " 39 " 

Pectoralis major " 33 " 

(Esophagus, anterior to the diaphragm " 31 " 

" posterior " " 1 " 

Peivi-femoral muscle " 26 " 

Tibial " " 26 " 

Longissimus-dorsi muscle " 20 " 

Scapulo-humeral " " 18 " 

Eadio-ulnar " " 17 " 

Metatarsal " " 9 " 

Intercostal " " 8 " 

Small muscle of ear " 2 " 

" tad " 1 " 

Kramer f gives the following as the results of examining one 
gramme of flesh from different parts : 

Prom the biceps contained 420 trichinae. 

" masseter " 213 " 

" genio-glossus " 188 " 

" gastrocnemius " 186 " 

" sterno-mastoid " 171 " 

" pectoral " 148 " 

" diaphragm " 129 " 

" crico-thyroid " 124 " 

" intercostal " 113 " 

" rectus abdominis " 106 " 

" psoas " 105 " 

" tongue " 58 " 

" laryngeal " 21 " 

Not having any opportunity to make detailed examinations of 
the muscles of any whole or single hog, I could not make any per- 
sonal observations of the percental dispersion of the trichinae over 
the different muscle-groups or parts of the organism. 

Coming upon a piece of a pillar of the diaphragm which was 
wonderfully infected, I made the following numerical observation 

* " Die Tricliinen." f " Deutsche Klinik," July and August, 1872. 



10 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

(in fact, I never saw among all my examinations a piece of pork so 
completely filled with these pests ; capsules with four trichinae in 
them were by no means seldom) : *05 (5 centigrammes) contained 
at least 50 trichinae. One gramme would therefore contain 1,000, 
and 4 grammes, or a drachm, 4,000, and a pound of such pork 
would contain at least 400,000, and, if we assume the muscles of a 
hog to weigh 100 pounds, its organism — were equal dispersion pos- 
sible—would contain 40,000,000. 

The immense multitude of these parasites which may be found 
infecting a single organism is still more wonderful than their wide 
dispersion over the autosite. 

Leuckart estimates that, in some of the cases which have come 
under his observation, a single gramme of flesh lodged from twelve 
to fifteen hundred ; and assuming the muscles of a man to weigh 
forty pounds, the number of these parasites infecting a human or- 
ganism at such a ratio would sum up some thirty millions. 

In Zenker's case — to be especially noticed later — Fiedler calcu- 
lated that the woman must have lodged some ninety-four millions / 
and Cobbold assumes that one hundred millions of the encapsulated 
parasites may sometimes infect one organism at the same time. 

Leuckart again says that no one would look upon the foregoing 
as exaggerated estimates who, like himself, had found some sixty 
trichinae in ten milligrammes of muscle. 

In a report of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, it was esti- 
mated that one cubic inch of pork, examined under its auspices, 
contained some ten thousand, and that a person consuming the 
ordinary amount of such flesh, taken at a single meal, would intro- 
duce into his organism more than one million trichinae. 

Rauch found numerous trichinae infecting the muscles of a hog. 
Of three hundred microscopic specimens, they failed in but three. 
In some he found thirty in one focus ; in others, but five or six ex- 
amples. As in seventy specimens weighing one gramme three hun- 
dred and fifty trichinae were found, one pound would contain one 
hundred and seventy-five thousand ; and one hundred pounds, sev- 
enteen million five hundred thousand. In many cases, however, 
the parasites are much less frequently met with; and one has to 
search through many microscopic specimens before meeting with 
any, and then only with isolated examples. 

When sufficient time has elapsed from the invasion of the mus- 
cles and formation of the capsules, the same may be recognized 
microscopically as small, white specks. Such muscles appear as if 
sprinkled with grains of white salt or sand. The calcification of 



TRICHURIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. H 

the capsule begins about the fifth month subsequent to the invasion 
of the muscles. 

It has been said by some observers that the trichinae capsules in 
the hog do not calcify ; others affirm the contrary. The polari- 
scope, however, will reveal the presence of calcareous salts in the 
capsule if sufficient time has elapsed since invasion. The reason 
they may not be easily recognized microscopically must be sought 
in the influence on the salts of the fatty oils in the porcine organism, 
which renders the crystals less visible. 

The Intestinal Trichinae. 

So long as the trichinae remain encapsulated in the fibers of the 
muscle, their condition remains unchanged. They make no progress 
in their development, irrespective of the number of years that they 
may have been imprisoned. They have been seen in an active — i. e., 
capable of progressive — development, under favorable conditions, 
thirteen, twenty, and even twenty-four years from the time invasion 
took place. 

a. In 1861 a woman was admitted into the hospital at Altona, Ger- 
many, suffering from a mammary cancer, which had been develop- 
ing some twelve years. On its removal and subjection of its tissues 
to microscopic examination, the presence of trichinae in the muscle- 
fibers was manifested. On inquiry, it was ascertained that in 1856 
the woman had resided at Davenport, Iowa, where she was taken 
suddenly very ill, gastric and rheumatic phenomena being the most 
prominent of any, together with oedema of various parts and para- 
lytic phenomena. Her brother, with whom she resided, was at- 
tacked in a similar but less severe form at the same time. The 
woman died at the Altona Hospital in 1864, and an examination of 
her muscles revealed the presence of great numbers of encapsulated 
trichinae. A cat fed with pieces of these muscles died in the course of 
sixteen days, its muscles being repletely infected with these parasites. 

o. Yirchow reports a case where, after the lapse of thirteen years 
and a half, the parasites moved in their capsules on prolonged ex- 
posure to the heat of the sun. 

c. Klopsch reports a case of trichiniasis, with complete recovery, 
which took place in 1842. The parasites were discovered in the 
muscles of the individual twenty-four years afterward. This dis- 
covery was also made on the excision of a mammary cancer. At 
the same time that this woman was ill, two persons in the same 
house became sick under similar conditions. Both died. (Yirchow's 
" Archiv," Bd. 35, p. 609.) 



12 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

d. Professor Dammau* formerly of the Eldena Agricultural 
Academy, reports a very interesting case, illustrating the longevity 
and tenacity of life of embryonal trichinae in the muscles of a hog. 

This hog was fed with trichinous meat in November, 1864, and 
in February, 1865, presented to the experiment station at Eldena. 
Since that time the animal had been kept isolated, unless removed 
from its pen for examination. On February 3, 1875, and February 
12, 1876, Dammau removed a small piece of flesh from the shoulder. 
At both times trichinae were found. A considerable piece of flesh 
was removed and fed to two rabbits, and eighteen days subse- 
quently their muscles were found to be plentifully invaded with 
trichinae. 

This case demonstrates, beyond all question, the presence of 
living trichinae, which were capable of maturing, fructifying, and 
developing young when fed to other animals, after a period of 
eleven years and a quarter from the time that the invasion of the 
hog took place. 

Although the encapsulated trichinae suffer no changes while 
confined in the muscles of an autositic organism, yet the introduc- 
tion of portions of such muscles into the intestinal tract of man, or 
other suitable animal, causes rapid changes in their condition. The 
processes of digestion soon set the imprisoned parasites free from 
their capsules, three to four hours being sufficient for the purpose. 
The freed parasites rapidly complete their development to mature 
trichinae, thirty to forty hours being enough. In cases of fresh in- 
vasion, when the capsules have not become very hardened, twenty- 
four hours have been found sufficient to demonstrate the presence 
of sexually matured trichinae in the intestines of animals fed with 
such flesh by way of experiment. Still, we may often find trichinae 
inclosed in their capsules on the third day after feeding infected 
flesh to an animal. 

There is scarcely another helminth by which this matured stage 
in its development is reached in so short a period. 

Under these circumstances it is self-evident that the changes 
necessary to maturity by these parasites must be of a very insignifi- 
cant character. 

As a rule, sexual connection takes place within two days from 
the time the trichinae become free. 

The parasite increases in length and thickness, and in the fe- 
male the uterus fills with fructified ova, which soon develop into 
embryos still inclosed in the maternal worm. 

* "Zeitschrift fiir prac. TMerheilkunde," 1876, vol. iii, p. 92. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 13 

The female intestinal or matured parasite lives from five to six 
weeks, and produces at least fifteen hundred embryos. (Leuckart.) 

The newly born embryos are at first buried in the mucus which 
lines the intestinal canal ; a microscopic examination of such mucus, 
at this time, will reveal them as free and movable parasites. The 
embryos soon begin their migration and dispersion over the organ- 
ism, the first act being the penetration of the intestinal parietes. It 
seems to be still a matter of discussion as to the means or ways 
by which further migration takes place. Some authorities, in fact, 
all the most eminent, favor the view that the parasites proceed by 
the way of the mesenterium and connective-tissue tracts over the or- 
ganism, and penetrate the sarcolemma, or sheath of the muscle-fibers. 

Another view, the possibility of which is conceded by the 
above-named authors to a minor degree, is that the embryos gain 
access to the circulation, and are transported over the organism by 
the moving fluid, boring the smaller vessels at convenience, and 
thus gaining access to the muscles. (Thudicum.) 

Were this the principal path of dispersion, we ought to be able 
to discover numerous examples of the parasite in the circulating 
blood of living animals that have been subjected to feeding experi- 
ments. This has not been the case, however. 

Thus it is evident that the host, or consumer of trichin-infected 
flesh, provides the means for its own invasion. 

While this is, in general, the manner in which invasion takes 
place, it by no means excludes the possibility of the infection of an 
auimal taking place by intestinal trichinae (embryos), which have 
passed from an already infected organism with its faeces. In this 
way an infected swine may infect others, or, in fact, give occasion 
to a secondary invasion of itself, by rooting in the manure of its 
pen. In the same way swine may become infected from infected 
human beings where, as is too often the case, the out-houses for 
the family are placed over the pig-pen, or lead into it, or where the 
contents of the same are thrown into the piggery for the swine to 
work over. 

Thus we see the cycle of invasion may frequently continue 
from swine to man, and from man to swine. 

Trichinae may be assumed to be regular cosmopolitans. Whether 
Noah took a pair of them with him into the ark will probably con- 
tinue to be an open question. They have been discovered in Ger- 
many, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, France, Italy, 
North and South America, Africa, India, Australia, Spain, Egypt, 
and Syria. 



14: THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

In fact, it may truly be said that they have been found infecting 
pork in whatever land, and wherever they have been sought for. 

As to their presence in other animals than man and the hog, 
they have only been unquestionably found in warm-blooded ani- 
mals, such as cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, mice, the marmot, the wild 
hog of Europe, and even the hippopotamus. 

Gerlach has produced invasion in calves and horses, while 
Leisering was unable to in the latter animal. 

Several reports have been published with reference to the dis- 
covery of trichinae in the flesh of fish and other cold-blooded ani- 
mals, but they all fail of experimental proof, and are non-conforma- 
ble with our knowledge of the physiological activities of the parasite, 
which becomes torpid in a temperature a few degrees below that of 
the ordinary living mammal. 

For some unknown reason they do not seem to be able to invade 
the muscles of fowls, though some authors claim to have found 
them in the intestines. A case is reported of invasion of some 
soldiers from eating a goose (" Philadelphia Medical Times," April 
13, 1878), the accuracy of which is very questionable, as pigs are 
fully as easily stolen as geese; and no evidence exists that they 
were seen in the flesh of the goose. 

With regard to hens, I made quite a series of experiments. 

1. I fed them with highly infected pork, in the natural way. 
Eesults negative. No trichinae, either in the intestines or mus- 
cles. 

2. Assuming that the triturating powers of the gizzard might be 
sufficient to destroy the parasites before they could gain access to 
the intestines, I caused a quantity of infected pork to be chopped 
for several hours, until it became a veritable mush; microscopic 
examination of this mass revealed the presence of numerous free 
trichinae. This mass was stirred up with warm water, so that it 
could be drawn into a coarse syringe ; the intestines of the fowls 
were then washed out as cleanly as possible with warm enemas, and 
time given for the water to flow off again. Several syringefuls of 
the mass were then injected, and the outflow stopped artificially. 
After forty-eight hours this obstruction was removed. Eesults 
absolutely negative, so far as producing muscle-invasion was con- 
cerned, at an examination made four weeks from the time of the 
experiment. "No trichinae in intestines. 

3. The abdominal cavity of six other fowls was opened, and two 
tablespoonfuls of the watery mass, but thicker than the preceding, 
poured in. The aperture was then sewed up. The hens drooped 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 15 

a few days, but recovered, and ate well. Examination at the same 
time witli the others gave negative results, although a queer-looking 
condition of the abdominal cavity existed. Why these hens did not 
die of septicaemia I do not know. 

I had hoped to carry on numerous feeding and therapeutic ex- 
periments during my examinations of pork in 1881, but lack of 
means on my own part, as well as on the part of the Board of 
Health of Massachusetts, prevented their accomplishment. 

Teichiniasis in Swine. 

As we have previously mentioned, the disease was discovered 
in swine by Leidy, in 1847. 

It is to German observers that we must look almost entirely for 
any authoritative statements with reference to the percental infection 
of swine with these pests, for in no other country is there at present 
anything approaching a systematic examination of pork, and even in 
Germany there is much room for improvement. 

To make the statistics valuable, it is necessary that the law 
should require that, at least so far as domestic consumption goes, 
all hogs should be examined before being cut up, and that only one 
part — viz., the pillars of the diaphragm, or psoas muscles — should be 
used for examination. There is no evidence that this is the case in 
Germany, hence I much doubt whether it would not be possible to 
largely increase their present ratio of infection. The following 
statistics have been gathered at random, with no attempt at com- 
pleteness, but simply as illustrations, from the books in my own 
library, such as Yirchow's " Archiv," the " Vierteljahrsschrift f iir 
gerichtliche Medicin," the " Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Thiermedicin," 
" The Veterinary Eeports of Saxony and Hanover," the " Magazin 
fur Thierheilkunde " (Gurlt u. Hertwig), the " Archiv f iir Thier- 
heilkunde," and the " Mittheilungen aus d. Praxis d. Preussischen 
Staate." 

For Eostock, Germany, Petri gives the following : 

1869 Number hogs examined, 5,457 ; trichinous, 1 

1871 " " " 6,520 " 2 

1872 " " « 6,555 " 

1873 " " " 6,441 ' l 3 

1874 " « « 6,731 " 2 

1875... " " " 7,222 " 5 

1876 " " " 7,165 " 

1877 " " " 7,562 " 2 

Total 53,653 15 

Trichinous, 1-3543. 



16 



THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



For Braunschweig, Ulide reports : Whole number examined 
between 1866 and 1880, 111,806 ; trichinons, 29. 

1866-67 there was found 1 hog of every 6,700 examined, trichinous. 



1867-'68 
1868-'69 
1869-'70 
1871-'72 
1872-'73 
1873-'74 
1874-'75 
1875-'76 
1876-'77 
1877-'78 
1878-'79 
1879-'80 



5,700 

14,500 

15,300 

13,387 

4,874 

5,129 

7,004 

13,183 

7,127 

5,879 

10,397 

3,857 



PRUSSIAN STATE STATISTICS. 





No. examined. 


Trichinous. 


Measles. 


No. of state examiners. 


1876 


1,728,595 
2,057,272 
2,524,105 
3,164,656 
3,342,303 


800 

701 

1,222 

1,938 

2,284 


4,705 
5,434 
6,165 
9,669 
11,379 


11,915 


1877 


12,865 


1878 


16,251 


1879 


17,413 


1880 


18,332 






Total 


12,816,831 


6,945 





Trichinous, 1 to 1,845. 

Eulenburg's report for 1880 deserves some special consideration. 

The ratio of trichinae in swine in Prussia has, we see, constantly- 
advanced with each year since 1876. In 1879 it was 1 to 1,632 ; 
and in 1880, 1 to 1,460 ; which must be attributed to greater exact- 
ness in the observations. The great number, constantly increasing, 
of appointed examiners is also worthy of notice: from 11,915 in 
1876, they have been increased to 18,332 in 1880. In Berlin they 
found 1 to 1,247 swine trichinous, while in Posen the ratio was 
1 to 138, which more nearly corresponds to the conditions in this 
country. There does not seem to be at present any endeavor on 
the part of the Government to make investigations into the cause 
of these things. Three hundred and twenty-nine cases of trichiniasis 
among human beings, and four deaths, are reported. In all cases it 
was traced to the consumption of either uncooked or improperly 
examined pork. In Berlin there were but sixteen cases during the 
year, a much smaller number than in previous years, which is at- 
tributed to the greater stringency with which the examinations are 
carried out. One of these cases is interesting from the fact that 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 17 

the person who died, consumed, raw, a piece of pork known to be 
trichinous, in order to show that the idea that trichinae caused dis- 
ease in man was a fallacy. Of examinations of American pork, the 
report says 3,030 trichinous pieces, sides, were found. Such an 
examination has no statistical value, as it does not show whether 
the sides were all from different hogs or not ; further, were they all 
American ? The average of trichuriasis in American pieces, not 
hogs, was found to be 4 to 100. It was found that the abdominal 
muscles were only serviceable for examination, or such as were at- 
tached to the shoulders. More than twenty sides a day should not 
be examined by one person (?). 

In Schleswig, of 782 " Amerikanischen Eouladen," 8 were found 
trichinous ; of 1,952 sides, 64; 3,903 hams, 66 ; and 13 shoulders, 3. 

In Stettin, of 72,230 sides, 1,124 were found trichinous. 

The number of swine affected with measles was 1,710 more 
than in the former year. 

From Hamburg, Germany, we have a few statistics which may 
have an instructive comparative value : 

In 1878, of 35,510 American hams examined, 397 trichinous. 

" " 14,003 " sides " 85 " 

" " 17,113 European hams " 3 " 

" " 222 " sides and 10,838 hogs examined, none trichinous. 
In 1879, of 79,864 American hams examined, 1,087 trichinous. 

" " 22,749 " sides and shoulders examined, 196 trichinous. 

" " 28,710 European hams examined, 2 trichinous. 

" " 16,204 " hogs " 1 " 

In 1880, of 55,008 American hams examined, 566 trichinous. 

" " 23,589 " sides " 270 " 

" " 49,943 European hams, sides, and hogs examined, none trichinous. 
At Blankenhurg, from 1864-'65, 7,000 to 8,000 hogs examined, and hut 1 in- 
fected. 

At Hanover, from 1865-'66, 18,656 hogs examined, and 12 trichinous. 
In Sachsen-Weimar, from March, 1868-'69, 19,611 examined, and 1 found 
trichinous. 

In 1875-76, at Frankfort, 8,000 hogs examined, 4 trichinous. 

" " Gulen, 1,600 to 1,800 hogs examined, 1 trichinous. 

At Copenhagen, 1867, 8,174 examined, 15 trichinous. 
At Cbarkow, Eussia, 1876, 3,550 examined, 5 trichinous. 

These statistics could be multiplied ad libitum, but they are 
sufficient to show the results of Continental examinations. It is to 
be regretted, however, that we have no reliable statistics from either 
England, Scotland, Ireland, or France, or other Continental coun- 
tries, since they have commenced to lay so much stress upon the 
infected condition of American pork. 
2 



18 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Trichina in American Pork. 

We have already noticed the examinations of American pork 
made at Hamburg during several years, and will follow with a few 
more quotations of the same nature : 

At Kostock, 12 of 622 American sides were found trichinous. 
At Gothenburg, 8 of 210 American sides were found trichinous. 
At Ebbing, 2 per cent of the pieces examined were found trichinous. 
In Schleswig-Holstein, of 5,673 pieces examined, 47 were found trichinous. 
In 1877, 343 cases of infected American pork were reported, and 183 cases 
of the disease in human beings. 

In the early part of the year 1881, badly infected American 
pork was reported as having been found at Lyons, France. 

Professor Mueller, of the Berlin Veterinary Institute, wrote me, 
under date of December, 1880, that of eighty-eight live American 
hogs (constituting a part of a shipment) that had been slaughtered 
at Dresden, fourteen were found trichinous. 

Dr. Loring * says, " I do not know that Germany or France 
has even examined for this disease in live hogs." 

The foregoing was reported by me in American papers at the 
time, and subsequently in the report of the Imperial Board of 
Health of Germany, and several German medical reviews ; and 
could have been as well known to our agricultural department as 
the presence of pleuro-pneumonia in the District of Columbia, a 
fact that ocular demonstration of diseased lungs could scarcely force 
upon our agricultural commissioner. 

At Turin, Italy, February, 1879, four per cent of a lot of Cin- 
cinnati hams were found trichinous, which led to the Government 
putting restrictive examinations on all further importations. 

A continual recurrence of such facts has caused a more or less 
strong feeling on the Continent against our pork, a feeling which 
nationalism and the public prints have fostered to the fullest extent. 

The result has been that in many countries restrictive measures 
regulating the importation of American pork have been introduced, 
which to a certain measure have acted as an embargo against further 
importations. In some countries these measures have even been 
extended to American lard, and a great alarm created about some 
kind of hydraulic pressing out of the same instead of trying it out ; 
in fact, everything possible is being done to keep out the competi- 
tion of American products. 

* Letter to Health Congress, Savannah, 1881. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 19 

With regard to our pork, I think the assertions of the Germans 
and their restrictive measures are just. 

Naturally enough the old adage, " Touch a man's pocket and you 
touch his heart," found an illustration on this side of the Atlantic. 

The pork-producers of every variety became very much alarmed, 
and called upon the Government to assist them. 

Our consuls all over Europe were requested to make inquiries 
as to the true nature of these reports, and to report to their own 
Government. It is not within the nature of my work to consider 
these reports in detail; but, suffice it to say that they displayed 
fully as much patriotism for the purity of American pork as the 
Continentals did for their own. Some went so far as to call the 
whole thing a humbug. A real desire to know the truth pervaded 
neither our representatives at home nor abroad. 

As with pleuro-pneumonia of our cattle, so with trichiniasis of 
the hog, our Government adopted a prevaricating and false course. 
It sought to "bluff down" the results of foreign examinations, and 
either did not seek to discover, or ignored the results of, home ex- 
aminations. 

In the face of a report of the State Board of Health of Massa- 
chusetts — numerous copies of which were sent to Washington — 
which contained a paper on the subject of trichiniasis, and statistics 
of the examination of the largest number of hogs which had until 
then been made in the country, the State Department published 
a singular document, which requires attention. It utterly ignored 
the statistics of the above report. 

Clauses 8, 9, and 10 are as follows : 

8. That the percentage of American hogs infected with trichinae 
is, in all probability, by reason of the superiority of the breed 
(which ?) and feeding, much less than that among the hogs of any 
other country. 

9. That freedom from trichiniasis of the two great pork-consum- 
ing centers of the West, Chicago and Cincinnati, furnishes the 
strongest possible evidence of the purity of American pork. In 
Chicago, of forty thousand deaths, with causes, reported for a series 
of years, only two were from trichiniasis. During the same time 
none were reported in Cincinnati. 

10. The reported cases of trichiniasis among human beings have 
resulted from eating uncooked pork, etc. 

With regard to trichinae in American hogs, the above-quoted 
sections from a state document have no foundation whatever. 
They have nothing to stand upon. 



20 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

In clause 8 it does not stand upon facts, but upon a mere asser- 
tion — that " probably," etc. 

Again, the person who instructed the Government knew abso- 
lutely nothing about trichinae. Neither the breed of the hogs nor 
corn-feeding, or any manner of feeding as commonly practiced, aside 
from swill-feeding, need have anything to do, pro or con, with tri- 
chinae in the hog. The hogs at the two great packing centers have 
never been thoroughly examined for trichinae, and at the time this 
document was published neither the Interior nor any other depart- 
ment had organized any proper examination of American pork. 

The percentage of deaths among human beings has nothing to 
do with the percentage of infection among swine. 

Luckily for the American people, it has not. Even though 
cooking will kill trichinae, and thus render infected pork harmless, 
it does not prove that American hogs have " much less trichinae 
than those of any other country." A German has as much right to 
indulge a taste for uncooked smoked ham or spiced hashed pork as 
an American or Englishman has for rare or raw, warm or cold roast 
beef. The German may be invaded by trichinae for his cannibal- 
ism, and the American by a tape-worm (tcenia medio-canalata). 

Examinations of American Poke. 

At Chicago, April, 1881, a Dr. Paton is said (newspaper report) 
to have examined twenty specimens each, from four hundred hogs, 
and found none trichinous. 

The Chicago Academy of Sciences (" Boston Medical and Surgi- 
cal Journal," vol. lxxiv, p. 136) reports the examination of thirteen 
hundred and ninety-four hogs, and finding twenty-eight trichinous. 

Health Commissioner De "Wolff reported (1879) finding eight 
out of a hundred trichinous. 

In 1879 I commenced my examinations of pork for the State 
Board of Health of Massachusetts, and again during three months 
of the summer of 1881. These examinations were not made upon 
any selected lots of swine, but the specimens were taken at random 
from the hogs as they hung up. 

No attempt was made to discover whence the hogs originally 
came, though, with the exception of about fifty, they were all 
bought at Chicago, and hence were emphatically Western hogs. In 
making these examinations, the pillars of the diaphragm were inva- 
riably used, one pillar representing one hog. But three microscopic 
specimens were taken from each pillar — a rule which I invariably 
adhered to. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 



21 



1879. 



LOT. 


Number ex- 
amined. 


Non-infected. 


Trichinous. 


1 


47 

48 

72 

60 

226 

192 

100 

81 

95 

93 

98 

300 

201 

192 

200 

257 

238 

163 

26 

12 


44 

46 

62 

56 

210 

179 

96 

80 

94 

89 

90 

275 

188 

187 

184 

252 

225 

154 

25 

11 


3 


2 


2 


3 . 


10 


4 


4 


5 


16 


6 


13 


7 


4 


8 


1 


9 


1 


10 


4 


11 


8 


12 


25 


13 


13 


14 


5 


15 


16 


16 


5 


17 


13 


18 


9 


19 


1 


20 


1 








2,701 


2,547 


154 



Trichinous, 1 to 17*54. 
From the same source as the preceding : 



1881. 



LOT. 


Number ex- 
amined. 


Non-infected. 


Trichinous. 


1 


127 
130 
153 
120 
124 
100 
119 
127 
160 
125 
127 
122 
124 
100 
122 
120 


120 
127 
150 
115 
123 
99 
113 
123 
152 
118 
122 
118 
118 
100 
115 
114 


7 


2 


3 


3 


3 


4 


5 


5 


1 


6 


1 


7 


6 


8 


4 


9 


8 


10 


7 


11 


5 


12 


4 


13 


6 


14 





15 


7 


16 


6 








2,000 


1,929 


71 



Trichinous, 1 to 28. 



22 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

From another source : 



LOT. 


Number ex- 
amined. 


Non-infected. 


Trichinous. 


1 


129 
130 
140 
105 

73 
130 
119 
127 
132 
182 

93 

128 

' 112 

124 

81 

84 
120 

59 


120 
123 
130 
102 

71 
125 
115 
120 
130 
175 

93 
125 
110 
120 

80 

80 
117 

57 


9 


2 


7 


3 


10 


4 


3 


5 


2 


6 


5 


7 


4 


8 


7 


9 


2 


10 


7 


11 




12 


3 


13 


2 


14 


4 


15 


1 


16 


4 


17 


3 


18 


2 








2,068 


2,199 


75 



Trichinous, 1 to 27. 



From a third source 



LOT. 


Number ex- 
amined. 


Non-infected. 


Trichinous. 


1 


105 

45 

65 

80 

61 

63 

96 

100 

100 

98 

90 

101 

121 

103 

76 

102 

130 

130 

131 

122 

85 


105 

45 

64 

78 

60 

60 

92 

99 

99 

96 

86 

98 

121 

100 

75 

100 

124 

125 

128 

120 

84 




2 




3 


1 


4 


2 


5 


1 


6 


3 


7 


4 


8 


1 


9 


1 


10 


2 


11 


4 


12 


3 


13 




14 


3 


15 


1 


16 


2 


17 


6 


18 


5 


19 


3 


20 


2 


21 


1 








2,004 


1,959 


45 



Trichinous, 1 to 44. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 



23 



RESUME. 





Number of hogs 
examined. 


Non-infected. 


Trichinous. 


1879 


2,701 
2,000 

2,068 
2,004 


154 

71 
75 
45 


1 to 17 


1881. Same source 


1 to 28 


" Second source 


1 to 27 


ii Third source 


1 to 44 






Total 


8,773 


345 


1 to 25 







The above figures do not certainly serve to support the words of 
our state document, that there are " less trichinae in American pork 
than in that of any other country." They do speak in no uncertain 
terms that our Government has a duty which it owes to a large 
national interest, and that is, to spare no expense until the original 
source whence our swine become invaded be discovered. 

As has been already said, all but about fifty of these eighty- 
seven hundred hogs were bought at Chicago, hence were Western 
hogs, though killed and examined at Boston. They were purchased 
at the same yards whence the Chicago packing-houses get that 
pork which our State Department declares to be so " free from 
trichinae." 

Further, the percentage of infection of the hogs from the differ- 
ent sources is interesting, but not very instructive. In 1879 we 
had a ratio of infection of 1 to 17 hogs, and from the same place 
1 to 28 in 1881 ; while by the hogs from a third source we had an 
infection of 1 to 44. Yet they were all "Western hogs. 

This variation in the ratio of infection between those examined 
in 1879 and 1881 called forth the following remarks from Dr. Lor- 
ing, the present Commissioner of Agriculture : 

" A veterinarian of New England informed me on the 14th of 
April last that he had examined portions from 2,701 "Western hogs, 
obtained in Boston, 154 of which he found infected, i. e., one case 
to each 17 T 5 o 4 o- hogs examined. He tells me that he will make a 
statement to this meeting that he has examined portions of 8,773 
Western animals, and has found one case to every 25 animals. Yoic 
will see that there is a great difference between his first {April) ex- 
amination and this one, and his result is so greatly different from 
the English examination of our hogs, above mentioned, and so much 
above any known proportion among animals of every other country, 
that I can not but entertain doubts of the value of his examina- 
tion." * 

* See letter to Health Congress, Savannah, 1881. 



24 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The English examination spoken of reads as follows : 

" The inspectors of the Veterinary Department examined two 
hundred and seventy-nine separate portions of swine! s flesh, which 
were sent from Liverpool, and detected living trichina} in three 
specimens''"' (1 to 93). 

As to the discrepancy spoken of between the results of my ex- 
aminations, made about a year apart: it is not greater than that 
between any two lots taken at random in the same examination, nor 
so great as between very many lots examined on two consecutive 
days; for instance, in my series of 1881, lot 14 (source the same 
as in 1879) consisted of 100 pieces, of which none were infected, 
while of lot 13, 124 pieces, six were trichinous. 

In two different epidemics of small-pox, the number of deaths 
is never the same, or even the number of cases. Are we, then, to 
say a later invasion is not small-pox, because the number of cases or 
deaths is less or more than in a previous ? I never for a moment 
expected similar results, and should have been as pleased to find 
none as any one in the country. 

"With reference to the English examination, 1 to 93, it is greater 
by far than the ratio of infection found in the hogs of any 
other country, and greater than I found in some lots examined by 
me ; for instance, lots 1, 2, 3, 4, of my third series, 1881, con- 
tained, respectively, 105, 45, 65, and 80 specimens, representing 295 
hogs, of which three were trichinous, 1 to 98. Further, we do not 
know the parts that the English examined ; had they been pillars 
of the diaphragm, the proportion might have been greater. 

As to the correctness of my results, I will simply say that Dr. 
Eolsom, of the Massachusetts Board of Health, went over a large 
part of those examined in 1879, and that competent physicians and 
a gentleman whom I educated to work with me, continually revised 
my other specimens as I examined them. 

Again, if the Commissioner of Agriculture doubts my results, 
let him send a competent man, or men, here, and examine with me 
the same specimens, be it one or ten thousand, and I venture to say 
we shall find a percentage of infection larger than that reported in 
any other country, and large enough to satisfy any one. 

Further, the Germans might well doubt the figures of their own 
examinations, as, from the Prussian statistics, we see the ratio of 
infection is steadily augmenting. 

I wish now to refer to the report of Dr. Jansen T. Payne,* from 
which I quote the following : 

* Eeport of the American Public Health Association, 1881. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 25 

" The method of conducting the researches was as follows : ' The 
examples procured one afternoon were examined the following day 
by the aid of a good microscope, capable of magnifying objects two 
hundred diameters. A low power was found to give greater satis- 
faction than a higher one could have done, and observers in this 
field would do well to bear this in mind. When it is taken into ac- 
count that each of the specimens had to be separated into minute 
shreds before they were placed upon the stage of the microscope, and 
consider the number of fibers examined in such cases ' " (he exam- 
ined in all 21,600 specimens from 5,400 hogs), "' it will readily 
be perceived that it is impossible to make anything like an ac- 
curate guess as to the whole number of pieces of muscle-fiber ex- 
amined? " 

Result : Number examined, 5,400 ; trichinous, 22. 

" By this series of examinations, it has been ascertained that 
Southern-bred hogs are free from trichinw" 

If there is anything I dislike to do, it is to criticise the work of 
another observer ; but one would like to know if two hundred di- 
ameters is considered a low power. For myself, when looking for 
trichinae, should I use such a power, I should not expect to find 
many trichinae, but boa-constrictors ; in fact, many would escape 
me. The male trichina measures one eighteenth, the female one 
eighth of an inch, in length — magnified two hundred diameters, 
what would one have ? 

Again, dividing specimens into shreds may be highly technical, 
but eminently unpractical ; for with crush-specimens one can easily 
recognize the parasite, and it is done quickly ; while in this way, 
and with such a high power as two hundred diameters, one would be 
sure to miss many. 

I doubt the statement that " Southern hogs are free from trichi- 
nce" as much as I do that " corn-feeding' 1 '' has anything to do with 
trichiniasis. 

But Boston is not the place for anything but statistical examina- 
tions. We must go nearer to the fountain-head. At Chicago it 
would be possible to examine large lots of hogs that have come 
directly from the breeder or fattener to the packer. Here lots 
could be examined and traced to the breeder. If highly infected, 
it would be easy to go to such places and make all manner of ex- 
aminations of the remaining hogs, of the earth, worms, grubs, etc. 
Some unknown living thing lodges trichinae before they enter the 
porcine organism. The scientific questions are : What is it ? where 
is it ? and what are its modes of life % 



26 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

These tilings discovered — and they must be — we can put an end 
to porcine trichiniasis, and every other kind. 

American Hogs much mobe Infected than Continental. 

A comparison of the statistics here given shows beyond all ques- 
tion that American hogs are more liable to trichiniasis than those of 
Germany ; for we have seen that in those examined at Rostock we 
had but 1 to every 3,543 ; at Braunschweig, 1 to 8,963 ; in Prussia, 
1 to 2,032, as trichinous ; while of the American examinations, 
from authentic sources, we have 28 out of 1,394, or 1 to 50 ; 8 
out of 100, and 345 out of 8,773, or 1 to 25, as infected. These 
were Western hogs, yet no one well acquainted with the circum- 
stances would, I think, assert that the hygienic conditions under 
which our "Western swine are raised are not superior to those of the 
famed " home-fed porkers " of the small New England farmer, raised, 
as they only too often are, in dark, loathsome, poorly ventilated 
pens, only too frequently under stables, with the house-vaults and 
sink-drains emptying into them. 

I should here mention that it has seemed impossible to make 
any valuable examinations of Massachusetts-raised hogs, there being 
no authorities to co-operate with me in procuring specimens. It 
will finally become necessary for each State to organize an exact 
statistical examination of the hogs raised within its limits, as to the 
proportion infected with trichinae. 

As to German hogs, whoever has been upon a tour of observa- 
tion through the agricultural districts of Germany, must have been 
most forcibly struck with the absurd non-hygienic conditions under 
which, not only hogs, but all the domestic animals are, in general, 
raised, in comparison with those of our own country, especially of 
the great stock-raising "West. 

In making examinations of hogs, with reference to tracing them 
back to the raiser, an important question will be whether the great- 
est proportion of trichiniasis is found among the hogs fed at the 
large distilleries, or under the apparently more favorable open-air 
feeding of the farmer ; or, again, as many farmers pasture their hogs 
in woods, etc., before the corn is ready for fattening, is it among 
such that we find more trichiniasis than among those kept con- 
stantly in pens ? It would also be of interest, and perhaps of practi- 
cal value, to know if the wild swine of our Southern forests are much 
invaded, as well as the peccaries of Mexico and South America. 
The following freely made translations of published remarks of an 
eminent German, will show the opinions which are gaining ground 



TRICHURIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 27 

in Germany with regard to our pork, and also how well posted 
even specialists are with reference to the true conditions in this 
country. 

Bollinger* (pathologist of the Veterinary School at Munich), 
writing on the " Trichinae in American Pork," in a review of an 
article by Roeper on the same subject, says : " The author of the 
paper ' Die Trichinen der americanischen Schinken ' has made 
numerous examinations in order to contradict the opinion held in 
America " (by whom 1) " that the trichinae of American pork are 
an entirely different species from those found in the swine of Ger- 
many, and are harmless. Also to contradict the opinion that the 
peculiar process which 'American sugar-cured hams' are passed 
through, is sufficient to render the parasites harmless." 

He found both these assertions without foundation. The curing 
process does not in all cases kill the trichinae in the deeper seated 
parts of the ham. 

The following absolutely erroneous explanation is given for the 
greater proportion of trichiniasis in our hogs in comparison with 
those of Germany : 

" The swine that are brought to the large American slaughter- 
houses are allowed to feed upon the refuse from slaughtered swine , 
and in this way have time and opportunity to infect themselves. 
Such infected swine are themselves slaughtered, and again give cause 
to infection of those that remain, which may have arrived later. 
Accordingly, this evil must go on constantly extending, and all per- 
sons must earnestly be warned against the consumption of ravj 
American pork." 

This German author certainly betrays ignorance of the true 
conditions at any large American packing-house. The refuse from 
the slaughtered swine is never fed to other swine that may be at 
such places, at any large packing-house in this country. It is sold 
for fertilizing purposes, or prepared for that purpose, and that 
only. 

According to the best German authorities, it takes from five to 
seven days for the newly introduced trichinae to bring forth young. 
No large American packing-house keeps a lot of swine on hand for 
from five to seven days, for they are killed as soon after arrival as 
possible. It would be impossible for them to kill from one to three 
thousand a day and do otherwise. While these assertions are abso- 
lutely false with reference to the large packing-houses, they are as 
strictly true, not only of many smaller establishments, where hogs 
* " Deutsche Zeitsclirift f. Thiermedicin," vol. i, p. 220. 



28 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

are killed for home consumption, but also where they are fattened 
and killed by the farmer, or raised for the use of his family. 

This report says further : " This refuse from slaughtered sivine 
at such large establishments is sold to the neighboring farmers as 
food to fatten their swine, and thus helps to swell the percentage of 
trichiniasis in American hogs." 

This is false also ! 

The report ends as follows : " It is therefore right to warn the 
people against the consumption of American pork" — and recom- 
mends the most stringent microscopic examination of the same. 

The Disease in Swine.* 

Numerous feeding experiments with trichinous flesh were made 
at the Berlin school, the results being given in an able paper by 
Professor Mueller. It was proved that the consumption of such 
flesh by swine, with the sequential development of the embryos in 
their intestines, and their migration and lodgment in the muscles, 
may indeed cause disease, but that the phenomena of the same have 
neither that constancy nor distinctness of character which will ad- 
mit of its recognition during the life of the animal. 

All the swine thus fed became ill within a few days after con- 
suming the meat. 

The following were the most constant phenomena presented : 

Diarrhoea, but not constant, being frequently interrupted by the 
passage of more solid faeces; sometimes it did not come to pass 
at all. 

Phenomena, indicating abdominal pains, were frequently ob- 
served ; such as uneasiness, burying themselves in the straw, etc. 

Such phenomena, either singly or collectively, may be observed 
in swine, entirely aside from any anticipatory trichin-infection. 
They simply indicate the action of some irritant within the intes- 
tinal canal, and in this case, it being trichinae, if the swine die, or 
are killed, we should have the same phenomena as in an intestinal 
catarrh of like grade, plus the trichinae, which could not, however, 
be recognized macroscopically. 

With the gradual cessation of the migration by the trichinae, the 
abdominal symptoms become less marked, and finally disappear, to 
be followed by those indicating some disturbance of the motor 
functions. If the latter do not lead to death, they in their turn 
gradually cease with the encapsulation of the parasites. 

Although the presence of trichinae within the intestines causes 

* Taken from the "Magazin f. d. gesammte Thierheilkunde," vol. xxxi, p. 6. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 29 

diarrhoea, yet, in these animals, it was impossible to find any em- 
bryos in their feces. 

This by no means excludes the possibility of finding them in 
other cases ; yet their passage away with the feces must in a meas- 
ure be retarded from their being buried in a profuse layer of mu- 
cus, which is the product of the irritation caused by them. 

In none of these swine was it possible to discover anything 
resembling the subcutaneous oedema which comes to pass in man 
under the same circumstances, and which serves essentially to the 
confirmation of the diagnosis. 

Leisering, of Dresden, has also made numerous experiments 
with swine, of the same nature.* 

He says : " One can not speak of a trichin-disease in swine, 
which is characterized by distinct and pathognomonic phenomena. 
In this regard the trichinae deport themselves similarly to the cysti- 
cerci, measles." 

Gerlach f says : 

a. " About two fifths of the hogs fed were either not affected 
or but slightly indisposed ; the remaining three fifths were visibly 
sick. 

h. " The light cases presented nothing of diagnostic value, while 
in the severe ones the symptoms were of such a character that, 
with the aid of the scalpel and microscope, a diagnosis could be 
made." 

(This is no more than saying that, with diarrhoea and abdominal 
pains, followed by disturbances in the motor functions, the scalpel 
and microscope would reveal the true cause, if trichinae.) 

c. " After an attack of trichiniasis, the hog again becomes well, 
and can be raised and fattened, as if nothing had happened. 

d. "In cases which apparently pass over symptomless, as the 
animal betrays but slight constitutional disturbances, the infection 
is still sufficient to make the flesh a dangerous article of food. 

e. " Hogs are most susceptible to trichin-invasion in early age. 
Old hogs are not easily infected ; i. e., the muscles are not very 
much invaded by the parasites. 

f. " Death results in over one half of the extremely severe cases. 

g. " Death is caused by means of intestinal irritation, as well as 
the severe muscular disturbances. Forty-one per cent die by the 
former, and fifty-nine by the latter." 

That trichinae can only gain entrance to an organism by means 
of the mouth and alimentary canal is beyond all question. 
* "Bericht u. d. veterinair Wesen im Sachsen," 1862, p. 118. f " Die Trichinen." 



30 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Notwithstanding the apparent negation of the quoted Berlin 
experiments, we have the very highest authorities affirming, on the 
strength of positive observations, that intestinal and embryonal 
trichinae do leave the invaded organism with the faeces. 

Leuckart says : " As the usually matured trichina accumulate in 
great numbers in the intestines, and as the irritation caused by 
them leads to the development of a more or less intense diarrhoea, 
it is evident that the young must be taken up and pass off with the 
faeces ; and not only free embryos, but also pregnant females, are 
subjected to this removal, which has been sufficiently attested by 
my own observations and those of Yogel, Kuhn, Gerlach, and 
others. This form of migration, under favorable circumstances, 
also contributes to the further distribution of trichinae. Haubner 
and Gerlach give cases where they intentionally caused the invasion 
of young — non-infected — swine by causing them to live in the same 
pens with known infected ones. Such embryos and pregnant fe- 
males become mixed with the manure and bedding of the hog-pens 
or on the grass of pastures, and may be taken up by other swine, or 
even by the original autosites, thereby leading to renewed inva- 
sion." 

In the above we have a course of invasion in which the swine 
are the only factors. 

Is there no other factor (or factors) in the question ? We have 
previously remarked that wild swine have been found trichinous ; 
also that rats, dogs, foxes, and other wild animals serve as autosites 
to them. 

Of all animals in which these parasites have been found, none 
have that interest, aside from swine, to the hygienist and patholo- 
gist which is enjoyed by the rat, on account of a hypothetical etio- 
logical connection between the trichinae which infest them and 
those in swine. 

Leisering appears to have been the originator of this hypothesis. 

The following statistics will suffice to show that the rat is even 
more favored with trichiniasis than swine : 

Of 704 rats from different parts of Germany, 59 were found 
trichinous — 8*3 per cent. 

Of 208 rats from German knackers, 46 were found trichinous — 
22 "1 per cent. 

Of 224 rats from German slaughter-houses, 12 were found tri- 
chinous — 6 per cent. 

Of 272 rats from other places, 1 was found trichinous — 0*3 per 
cent. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 31 

Of 326 rats from other places, 39 were found trichinous — 11 per 
cent. 

Of 51 rats caught at a knacker establishment at Spectacle Island, 
Boston Harbor, I found 39 trichinous. 

The proprietors of this place kindly gave me opportunity to 
examine twenty-eight hogs, which had been kept and fattened by 
them at the island in question. None were found trichinous. These 
hogs received no city swill of any kind. What flesh they received 
had been subjected to the heat necessary to extract the fats; other- 
wise, they received nothing hut corn-meal. 

Forty rats caxight at one of the large packing-houses near Boston 
were all found trichinous. 

Of sixty rats caught for me at different stables in the city of Bos- 
ton, where no hogs were or had been kept, but six contained trichince. 

I can not see any just grounds for accepting the rat-infection 
theory ; i. e., that swine become invaded in the majority of cases 
from eating trichin-invaded rats. In fact, I am strongly inclined 
to think that quite the contrary is the case ; though I willingly 
admit that an occasional hog may become invaded in this manner. 
My own observations would seem to prove that whenever rats have 
opportunity to get at the trimmings or refuse of slaughtered hogs, 
there the rats will be found to be most profusely trichinous ; while 
in other localities it will not be so. 

Admitting that an occasional rat may lead to trichin invasion 
among hogs, we have still the open question, Is there no common 
source from which not only swine and rats, but wild animals, may 
derive this parasite f As, according to my own observation upon 
American pork, and my very limited examinations of American 
rats, they are both more largely invaded by trichinae than similar 
animals in Germany, it seems as if here in America were the place 
to study and decide these important questions. 

It will not do for us to falsify or ignore true facts. The man- 
ner hitherto adopted of asserting, by way of pure negation, that 
"American pork has no trichinas," as the pork interest has done, 
will not do. We must stand on facts gained by accurate and trust- 
worthy observers. "We must accept them. "We must search for 
the cause. Any other course is absurd, and equally ruinous to self- 
respect. 

Prevention of Teichtn^ tn Swine. 

1. Boards of health should take means, looking to the better 
education of the people in relation to hog-raising, as well as all the 
principles of animal hygiene. 



32 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

2. Boards of health, should instigate exact statistical researches 
into the percentage of trichiniasis among swine raised in their re- 
spective States, as well as the hygienic conditions under which hogs 
are raised, in relation to this and other diseases. 

3. Continued examinations of rats should be made in all parts 
of the country, and their slaughter encouraged in every legal way. 
In this regard we can look upon the rat-pit as serving a public pur- 
pose ; and the rat-invasion theory, with reference to hogs, will re- 
ceive a final settlement. 

4. All sick swine should be peremptorily isolated from healthy 
ones, under the supervision of a competent veterinary inspector. 

5. All swine suffering from diarrhoea should be isolated, and 
singly. The greatest care should be taken in cleansing the pens of 
such swine from all fecal masses and refuse. 

a. The faeces from such swine should be subjected to micro- 
scopic examination. 

h. On cessation of the diarrhoea, whether motor disturbances 
appear or not, the muscles, tongue, etc., should be harpooned, and 
the specimens thus gained subjected to microscopic examination. 

6. Hogs in which trichinae had been found should be branded 
and fattened singly, or together ; but they should never be allowed 
to be sold for human food. Their lard could be tried out and sold. 

7. All hog-pens should be kept scrupulously clean, and the turn- 
ing of compost-heaps, or the drains from water-closets or houses, 
into hog-pens should be forbidden by law. 

8. Feeding the offal from slaughtered swine to others, cooked or 
uncooked, or having slaughter-houses over places where swine are 
kept, should be forbidden by law. 

9. Each State should have a board of animal hygiene, and a corps 
of competently educated veterinary police. 

The Miceoscopio Examination of Poke. 

Numerous elaborate essays have been written upon this subject ; 
but the entire process is so easy and simple, that such extended 
labor can well be looked upon as useless. 

Among the first, and at the same time most profusely invaded 
muscles, are the so-called "pillars of the diaphragm." They are 
always to be found as two small stumps of muscles — flesh — imme- 
diately below the kidneys in the dressed hog when hung up to 
" cool out," or in front of them when the hog is laid down. If 
there are any trichinae in the organism, examples will surely be 
found here. These pieces belong to the trimmings, and their re- 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 



33 



moval in no way interferes with the value or appearance of the 
dressed hog. 

Although a power of fifteen to twenty diameters is sufiicient to 
demonstrate the presence of trichinae to a proficient examiner, still 
it is much easier and safer to use one of from fifty to seventy-five. 

Fair microscopes, but by no means as convenient as the Hartnach 
model of Continental makers, are to be had from Americans at from 
fifteen to twenty dollars. A large table to the microscope is a con- 
venience. 

A few glass slides, or object-glasses, and some strong covering- 
glasses, a pair of small curved scissors, and two teasing-needles, are 
all that is necessary to complete the outfit. 

The first step is to take a piece of muscle and cut into its sub- 
stance, in order to have it as moist as possible, and with the curved 
scissors cut several thin slices lengthwise to the fibers, and with a 
needle place them on the object-glass a little distance apart; the 



ijl/i':'- ''■ 

M 




Fig. 1. — Fresh Trichinous Invasion 




Fig. 2. — Normal Encapsuled Trichinae. 
(Leuckart. ) 



covering-glass is then to be placed upon them and gently pressed 
with a slight, rolling motion, which will invariably make the speci- 
mens thin enough for examination. 
3 



34 



THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



It is not necessary to cleanse the glasses for each specimen to be 
examined. 

To determine if the trichinae still live, place the object-glass over 
heat — a spirit-lamp — for a second, enough to warm the slide, and 
then place it under the microscope, and they will be seen to move 
in their capsules. 

Salted pork is best examined by cutting it into thin pieces and 
soaking for a time, although the specimens can be at once placed in 
water for a few moments. 

Objects which mat be mistaken foe Trichinae, or not recog- 
nized as SUCH. 

It not unfrequently happens that the capsules become abnor- 
mally thickened, and the parasites dead within them. They do not 
then present the same appearances that are generally observed under 
normal conditions. 





Fig. 3. — Encapsuled Concretions 
with Dead Embryos in them. 



Fig. 4. — Trichina -Capsules with 
Calcified and Disintegrated Con- 
tents. 



In other cases the calcification is of such a character as to almost 
entirely change the appearance of both capsule and contents. 

Treatment of such capsules with hydrochloric acid will render 
the diagnosis easier. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAX AND ANIMALS. 



35 




Fig. 5. — Psorosperms in a Hog's Muscle. 
(Leuckart.) 



In some cases cysticerci, measles, perish and become calcined. 
These objects are somewhat larger than trichina-capsnles, and often 
contain a caseous mass. 

The sacs of Kainey, or, as they are also termed, " psorospermice," 
are elongated granulous bodies, like the trichinae, situated within 
the sarcolemma of the fiber. Their true nature or pathological im- 
portance is not yet well determined. 

Some valuable diagnostic 
points are, that in the latter — 
trichinae — the striation of the 
fiber is entirely destroyed with- 
in the capsule, while by psoro- 
sperms it is retained, limiting 
the objects laterally, and con- 
tinuing directly from their ex- 
tremities. 

Bruch,Virchow, and Leuck- 
art have described peculiar 
roundish or oval objects of a 
whitish color, having varying 
dimensions, which sometimes appear in the flesh of hams, and which 
have been demonstrated to consist of agglomerates of needle-like 
crystals. They fill the fiber to a variable degree without otherwise 
disturbing its contents, and disappear upon the addition of muriatic 
acid, the normal striation again becoming visible. 

Teichiniasis est Man. 

It is not my purpose to write an essay on the pathology of 
trichiniasis, either in man or animals, but to give the necessary 
natural historical facts of its life, and to illustrate its prevalence, 
with short notices of the phenomena of the disease in the above 
species. Treatment being so unsuccessful, it would be folly to notice 
it, and it also belongs more to works on medicine than in an essay 
on hygiene, or a contribution to preventive medicine. 

It has been previously mentioned that the honor of confirming 
the causal nexus between trichinae in pork and in man belongs to 
Dr. Zenker of Dresden, Germany. This was in the case of a ser- 
vant-girl, admitted to the city hospital at Dresden, as a typhus 
patient. She died, her muscles being found completely infected 
with trichinae. At the same time that she became ill, other per- 
sons of the same family, and the butcher that slaughtered a hog 
for them, were ill also, but in a modified form. An examina- 



36 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

tion of the pork at the house revealed the presence of numerous 
trichinae. 

Thudicum * sums up the principal phenomena of trichiniasis in 
man as follows : " Sudden swelling of the face, particularly of the 
eyelids, after the patient has for some days felt prostrate and lost 
his appetite — the swelling causes only a sense of tension, but no 
pain — fever, quick pulse, copious perspiration, which not rarely has 
a repugnant odor ; painf ulness and immobility of the arms and legs ; 
the muscles are swelled and contracted, and give great pain on being 
moved, or pressed severely ; in the worst cases the entire body is 
perfectly immovable and highly sensitive ; there is diarrhoea, with a 
red, somewhat coated tongue, inclined to dryness ; when the swell- 
ing of the face has subsided, oedema of the feet, legs, and thighs 
comes on. Shortly afterward anasarca and swelling over the trunk 
makes its appearance." 

From the time of Zenker's case, numerous others have come to 
pass in different countries, and epidemics have caused a shudder of 
horror among reflecting people. 

Epidemics have been reported at Corbach, 1860 ; Plauen, 1861- 
'62; Calbe, 1862; Hallstadt, 1862-'63 ; Hanover, 1864; Dresden, 
1864 ; and other places in Germany. The most remarkable outbreak 
is that of Hedersleben, a place of some two thousand inhabitants, 
of whom 337 became sick at one time, and 101 died. 

Cobbold communicated to Heller that the first authentic case of 
the disease, during life in man, occurred in England in 1871. 

"We have mentioned several cases illustrating the intra-vital dis- 
covery of the parasites in human beings on the excision of tumors, 
and numerous others are reported in medical literature. 

Forty persons became infected with trichinae at one time at 
Bremen from, it is said, eating American pork. 

At Lissa,f five members of one family became infected from 
eating of a ham which, it was said, had been pickled, smoked, and 
boiled for two hours. 

A poor woman £ became trichinous from eating the flesh of a 
dog, to which her necessities had driven her. 

At Linden,* a suburb of Hanover, four hundred persons were dis- 
eased at one time, and twenty-one died from eating trichinous pork. 

Dr. Keifer, || of Detroit, reports a fatal case of this disease, the 
patient dying at the end of the fourth week. 

* " Seventh. Report of the Privy Council," London, 1865. 

f " Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," vol. xc, p. 491 ; vol. xci, pp. 471 and 627 ; 
vol. 1, p. 208. % Ibid. * Ibid. || Ibid. 



TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 37 

Dr. Herr, of Dubuque, Iowa, reports fifteen cases and five deaths 
from eating raw smoked ham made into sausages. 

Several cases are reported for Philadelphia in the " American 
Journal of Sciences." 

In January, 1881, a case occurred at Blackwell's Island, New 
York. Two cases were reported at Chicago during the same month, 
and two at Milwaukee. 

Dr. Germer, health-officer at Erie, Pennsylvania, reports by letter 
of January 27, 1881, that the preceding Christmas he discovered 
seven cases in a place eight miles distant, which were traced to the 
eating of home fed and cured pork. 

The most interesting American case is one that occurred at 
Brooklyn, Long Island, September, 1879. Seven of a family were 
affected, and two persons died from the disease. This case came to 
trial at Brooklyn, the family suing a packing-house from which 
they had bought a portion of a ham two days previous to the erup- 
tion of the disease. As they had been continually in the habit of 
eating raw ham and sausages, and as they had purchased the ham 
only two days previous to the first appearance of illness, it was self- 
evident that the plaintiffs did not have any case, especially as no 
microscopic examination of the ham had taken place. Further, it 
does not seem as if retailers of pork can be held responsible for its 
containing trichinae in a country where neither the law nor the com- 
munity recognize any such disease of the hog. Even our boards 
of health simply recognize the existence of trichinae in pork as a 
scientific fact. All the hogs, specimens from which I examined, 
were cut up and sold, even though the Massachusetts Board of 
Health knew that I was continually finding them trichinous. Until 
the public becomes alive to its own interests, we may be sure that 
no steps toward prevention will be taken by the State. 

A German judge has ruled differently. A provision-dealer at 
Berlin was declared " guilty " for selling trichinous pork, which had 
not been subjected to microscopic examination, but which had 
caused disease among a number of persons, some of whom died. 
The judge ruled that such a decision was justifiable, even though 
the microscopic examination of pork was not then made imperative 
by law. The objection that the seller had no knowledge of its in- 
jurious character was ruled out. 

Dr. Sutton,* of Aurora, Indiana, reports nine cases of trichiniasis 
with three deaths from the consumption of uncooked sausage. The 
meat of the same was found to be trichinous. A cubic inch of the 
* "Lancet," vol. ii, 1875. 



38 



THE DISEASES OP DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



flesh, taken from the bone of one of the persons that died, was as- 
sumed to contain one hundred thousand trichinae. 

Dr. Sutton says that " microscopic examination of thousands of 
swine slaughtered in Indiana reveals three to sixteen per cent of 
them as trichinous." This is an unfounded statement, there being 
no authentic statistics of the examination of thousands of swine in 
Indiana even now, nor at the time the above was written. 

The " Kochester Democrat," May 1, 1879, reports several cases 
of trichiniasis in that vicinity. 

Cases have also been reported in the " Annals of the Michigan 
Board of Health," at Otsego, Detroit, Port Huron, and other places, 
several of which terminated fatally. 

In Saxony,* from 1860 to 1875, 39 different eruptions of the 
disease had taken place. The whole number of cases reported was 
1,267, with 19 deaths ; of the 19 that died, 3 out of 8 acquired the 
disease from eating raw meat ; 2 out of 630 diseased from cold sau- 
sage ; 8 of 340 from fried sausage, and 2 of 48 from eating raw ham. 

Of the 6,959,964 swine which were slaughtered in Saxony in 
these sixteen years, only 39, 1 to 180,000, gave occasion to trichiniasis 
in human beings. 



TABLE GIVING THE OBSERVED CASES OP TRICHINIASIS IK BAVARIA. 



No. 


Place. 


Tear. 


Number 
of cases. 


Author. 


Where described. 


Nature of trichin- 
ous meat. 


1 


Wurzburg. 


1853 


2f 


Virchow. 


"Virchow's Archiv," 
vol. Ixxxi, 1853. 


] 


2 


a 


1861 


It 


Kolliker. 


"Wurz. med. Zeit.," 
vol. ii, 12, 1861. 


Fresh meat 
}■ and raw 
ham. 


3 


Erlangen. 


mo 


n 


Maurer. 


" Deutsch. Arch. f. 












klin. Med.," vol. 












viii, 368, 1871. 




4 


m 


(?) 


n 


Zenker. 


Ibid., p. 388. 




5 


Zweibriicken. 


mo-"7i 


it 


Friedreich. 


Ibid., vol. ix, p. 459, 
1872. 




6 


Speyer. 


1873 


5 


David. 


Communicated to Dr. 
Goring. 


Swine from Ba- 
den. 


1 


Hof. 


1878 


6 


Roth. 


"Bef. Aerztekammer 
v. Oberfronken." 


Home - made 
pork. 


8 


Bamburg. 


Feb., 

1878 


30, 1 died. 


(i 


<l u 




9 


Niirnberg. 


May, 


^ 








10 




1878 
May, 
June. 


10! 
J 


Merkel. 


a « 


Salted pork. 


11 


Treuchtlingen. 


u 


4 


it 


ii a 


Sausage-meat. 


12 


Marktlenten. 


July. 


19 


Both. 


« it 


Fartly-fried sau- 
sage. 


13 


Burgsinn. 


Feb., 

1879 


7, 3 died. 


u 


"Mittheilepolit.Zeit- 
ung." 





* Reinard, " Archiv d. Heilkunde," p. 241, 1877. f Accidentally found at the autopsy. 
\ " Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Thiermedicin," Bollinger, Bd. 5, Hefte 3 u. 4, p. 204. 



. TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 39 

Glazier, in his report, Las collected a list of 3,044 cases of disease 
among human beings, and 231 deaths, in Europe. For this country, 
77 cases and 24 deaths. 

He has also endeavored to get at the prevailing opinion of doc- 
tors as to its extension among the people in this country, as revealed 
in autopsies, but, while many report having seen cases, the reports 
are in general of so vague a nature as to be next to valueless. 

An Epidemic of Tkichiniasis on the Jordan.* 
By Dr. John Woktahet. 

The outbreak of the disease was traced to a wild hog which had 
been shot in the swamps adjoining the village of El Khiam, on the 
25th of November, 1880. It was a very large boar, and I was told 
that its flesh appeared fresh, fat, and perfectly healthy. A very 
large number of the people of the village ate of the flesh of this 
hog, partly in a raw and partly in a semi-cooked condition. Not a 
single person that ate of the flesh escaped infection. 

The head of the boar was sent as a present to a family in a 
neighboring village. It was cooked three times before any of it 
was eaten. Although quite a number of people partook of it, none 
of them became sick. 

All of those that partook of other portions of the hog remained 
in a healthy condition until the eruption of the disease made itself 
evident, which took place in the majority in the second, and by 
some in the third week. I heard of only one man who was taken 
with emesis and diarrhoea soon after eating. In this case the phe- 
nomena of the disease were very mild. Another ate the meat well 
cooked, and remained free from any indications of invasion to the 
end of the fifth week subsequent to the same, and then was not 
confined to his bed. 

The principal phenomena during the third, fourth, and fifth 
weeks were oedema of the face and extremities, severe muscular 
pains, more or less fever, and itching over the whole body. The 
oedema sometimes extended over the whole body. The pain com- 
plicated the active muscles, inclusive of those of the lower jaw, 
the pharynx, and larynx. It was most severe at points where 
the tendons were inserted upon the extremities. Every move- 
ment was painful. The fever seemed to assume a severe type 
only in the fatal cases. Children suffered less than those of mature 
years. 

The period of convalescence, extending from the fifth week on, 

* " Virchow's Archiy," vol. lxxxiii, p. 653. 



40 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

was very slow, and accompanied by much muscular pain, oedema, 
and weakness. In some cases distinct relapses were apparent. 
The number of persons diseased was : 

Males 124 

Females 103 

Children . 35 

Total 262 

Of these died : 

Males 3 

Women , 3 

Total 6 

Of those that died, the cause seemed to be the exhaustive nature 
of the fever, and the constitutional disturbances in the fourth and 
fifth weeks of the invasion. The last fatal case was that of an eld- 
erly woman, in the beginning of the eighth week of the invasion. 
Some pieces of the musculus biceps brachii from this woman were 
subjected to microscopic examination and numerous trichinae found 
in the same. 

This is the first case of the kind reported in medical literature 
from Oriental countries, and is also of value as showing that the 
wild hogs of those regions also become trichinous as well as those 
of Europe. 

With reference to the observations of trichiniasis in the dead 
body: 

Dr. Bowditch, of Boston, reported four cases during the years 
1842-'44. 

Turner says of Scotland, that in five years 1 to 2 per cent of the 
human cadavers were found trichinous. 

Fiedler found 2 to 2*5 per cent at Dresden. 

"Wagner, 1 to 30 or 40 at Leipsic. 

Reports of like nature come from other countries. 

Peevention of the Disease est Mast. 

Aside from the regulations already given for the prevention of 
the disease among hogs, which, if possible to be carried out, would 
prevent it in man, there are several which must come into action as 
public health preventive measures. 

There is but one golden rule to prevention : cook the jpork thor- 
oughly I 

Leuckart and other experimenters have shown that a tempera- 



HOG-CHOLERA. 41 

ture of 140° Eahr., which must extend through a piece of pork, is 
necessary to the positive death of the parasites. 

The direct application of dry heat, by means of a hot table, to 
specimens under the microscope, demonstrates that a temperature 
of 50° C. — 122° Fahr. — is necessary to kill trichinae. 

The ordinary processes of cooking, salting, and smoking are not 
always a sure means of killing these parasites. 

All hogs should be subjected to microscopic examination by ex- 
perts, and no hog allowed to be cut up for sale as food until such 
an examination had been made. Those found invaded should be 
branded trichinous, and their sale as food forbidden by law under 
penalty of a heavy fine. 



HOG-CHOLERA. 

Pneumo-enteritis Suis Contagiosa. 

This peculiar infectio- contagious disease of the porcine family 
has been known to agriculturists and veterinarians for centuries. 
For years it has been looked upon as a form of anthrax, typhus, 
erysipelas, etc. ; but it has remained for our country to institute the 
first extensive researches as to its nature, though Klein, in England, 
anticipated them by doing some good work in this direction. On 
the Continent of Europe the disease has not as yet been scientifi- 
cally studied. 

I have nothing but praise for the admirable reports of Messrs. 
Detmers and Law upon the porcine pest, issued by the Agricultural 
Department at Washington in 1878, and most earnestly recommend 
it to public consideration. 

In 1877 our national commissioner reported a loss to the coun- 
try of $16,653,428 from contagious animal disease. 

Etiology. 

As with all forms of infectio-contagious diseases, we find also in 
hog-cholera, that it was a long time before we gained any accurate 
knowledge with reference to the nature of the elements causing it. 
Some have asserted that pigs will not contract the disease when fed 
on succulent vegetable food ; but Law has proved the fallacy of 
this opinion by direct experiment. Naturally, unfavorable nutri- 
tive and hygienic conditions will favor the development of this as 
well as other diseases, but they are not the direct cause. 



42 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Roell says the disease is attributed to hot and sultry weather, 
uncleanly pens, and offering to the swine of spoiled, moldy food 
and decomposing material in general. 

Harms seems to be the first to have discovered germs in the 
blood, and to have attributed to them an etiological importance, as 
he found the blood and other parts of diseased swine, as well as the 
food, replete with these organisms. 

Bollinger also describes micrococci and short cylinder bacteria 
in the blood, but does not consider the etiological connection with 
the disease as established. 

Eoell says further, " The disease has not yet been produced by 
inoculation." 

Spinola wrote a monograph on the "Diseases of Swine," Berlin, 
1842, and considers the disease to be of a gastro-bilious character; 
and says further, it is observed to occur in those swine which have 
much rest, a surplus of strong feed, especially that which is of a 
spirituous nature — brewers' grains, etc. — which incline to a surplus 
production of gall and its accumulation in the system. He also 
considers the above climatic conditions to exert an influence in the 
generation of the disease. 

It remained, however, for American veterinarians, not indige- 
nous to the country, to establish beyond doubt the true nature of 
this disease. 

The results of the studies of Messrs. Law and Detroers show the 
disease to be of an infectious and contagious nature, and capable of 
transmission to other animals as well as swine by inoculation. 

They discovered in the blood peculiar elements having a globu- 
lar or micrococcus form, as well as staff-like bodies — the mature 
form — to which Detmers gave the name of 

Bacillus Suis. 

These objects are found invariably in the blood, urine, mucus, 
exudations, etc., in all pathologically changed tissues and in the 
excrements of the diseased animals, and constitute, beyond all ques- 
tion, the etiological momenta of the disease. These bacilli undergo 
several changes, and require a certain length of time to fulfill their 
development ; consequently, if introduced into an animal organism, 
some time must pass (the incubational or colonization period) before 
the morbid phenomena become apparent. Three stages of develop- 
ment may be observed — viz., the germ, or micrococcus stage ; the 
bacillus, or rod-bacterial stage ; and the proliferating or germ-pro- 
ducing stage. 



HOG-CHOLERA. 43 

The micrococci are found in immense numbers in the fluids of 
the organism, especially in the blood and exudations. If the tem- 
perature is not too low, and a sufficiency of oxygen is present, they 
soon develop, or grow longitudinally, by a sort of budding process 
— a germ, or micrococcus, under constant microscopic observation, 
budded and grew to double its length in exactly two hours in a 
temperature of 70° Fahr., and gradually developed to a true rod. 
Some of the latter under favorable circumstances commence to grow 
again in length, until they appear five to six inches long, with a 
power of 850 diameters. At the same time scission takes place, 
and they break into two or more segments. These long bacteria 
appear to be replete with germs ; the external envelope disappears, 
or is dissolved, and the germs become free. 

Some of the bacilli move very rapidly, while others appear mo- 
tionless. The cause of motion seems to be in some way dependent 
upon the temperature, for they ajDpear motionless if the latter be 
low, but soon move if the temperature be increased and caused to 
exert a direct influence upon them. 

Another change to be observed is the collection of the germs, 
or bacteria, in the so-called zooglea clusters, which are often to be 
met with in the blood and other fluids, and invariably in the exu- 
dations in the lungs. In the ulcerous tumors of the intestinal 
mucosa these clusters are comparatively seldom, but the bacilli are 
very numerously represented. These tumefactions in the intestinal 
tracts appear to afford the most favorable conditions for the growth 
and development of these bacteria. 

Whether these zooglea clusters are instrumental in the pro- 
duction of capillary embolism is still an open question, though it 
appears highly probable. The vitality of the germs, and especially 
of the bacilli, does not appear to be very great (Detmers) except 
where they are contained in a medium not very prone to decomposi- 
tion, such as water which contains a slight amount of organic sub- 
stances. In the water of streams, brooks, etc., the germs are not 
very rapidly destroyed. In fluids and substances subject to putre- 
faction the bacteria lose their vitality very soon, and apparently dis- 
appear. They are also destroyed when acted upon by alcohol, car- 
bolic acid, thymol, iodine, etc. "With reference to the vitality of the 
infectious elements, Law says of the 

Virulence of Dried Virus. — This was indicated three years ago 
by Professor Axe, of London, who successfully inoculated pigs 
with virus that had been dried on ivory points for seventy-six days. 
Law inoculated three pigs with virulent products that had been 



44 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

dried on quills for one day ; one with the same kind of virus that 
had been dried four days, another with virus that had been dried 
five days, and another with virus that had been dried for six days. 
The quills had been sent from ISTew Jersey and North Carolina, 
without any special protection. Of the six inoculations four gave 
positive results, while two, in which the quills were subjected to the 
action of disinfectants, gave negative. 

Virulence of Dried Intestine. — Pieces of dried intestine, which 
had been dried for three and four days each, were used for inocula- 
tion, and gave positive results. 

Virulence of Moist Morbid Products if secluded from the Air. 
— In these experiments a pig was inoculated with a piece of in- 
testine sent from Illinois in a tightly corked bottle. The specimen 
had been three days from the pig, and had a slightly putrid odor. 
The disease developed on the sixth day. 

A second pig was inoculated with blood from a diseased pig 
that had been kept for eleven days at 100° Fahr. in an isolation ap- 
paratus, the outlets of which were plugged with cotton-wool. Ill- 
ness followed in twenty-four hours. 

These experiments go to prove that the exclusion of air, or re- 
tarding of putrefaction, probably favors the longer preservation of 
the inficiens. 

Probable Non- Virulence of Morbid Products that have under- 
gone Putrefaction. — This seems to be proved by direct experiment. 

Virulence of the Blood. — Law produced positive results by ex- 
periments upon two pigs, which is opposed to the single experiment 
of Klein ; but Law does not know but that at certain stages of the 
disease the blood may be non-virulent. 

Infection by means of the air does not seem to be clearly proved. 

Transmissions of the disease to other animals than the hog for 
inoculation seem all to be followed by positive results in sheep, 
rabbits, and dogs ; and Klein succeeded in producing it in rabbits, 
Guinea-pigs, and mice. 

Seasons and Temperatures. 

Experience has proved the extension and devastations of this 
disease to be the most extreme in the late summer and early fall 
months ; but the cold weather of winter does not seem to be able 
to put that check to its ravages which occurs under the same condi- 
tions with other diseases of a somewhat similar nature. 

Detmers says: "While, therefore, the very severe weather of 
the past winter caused a great reduction in the number of animals 



HOG-CHOLERA. 45 

affected, the disease was not eradicated, nor did its fatality seem to 
be lessened. The extension of the disease from one herd to another 
was greatly diminished ; but in infected herds where the malady 
was already prevailing when cold weather set in, there appeared 
but little difference in the rapidity of the transmission of the dis- 
ease from one animal to another in the same lot." 

Dr. Law confirms this statement, for his experiments proved 
that " the severe frosts of winter do not destroy the germs of the 
malady, but simply retard their conveyance from one herd to an- 
other." 

In another place Dr. Law says : " I have demonstrated that the 
freezing of the virulent matter does not destroy its activity, and 
that the virus loses nothing in potency by preservation for one or 
two months closely packed in dry bran. The same may be inferred 
of all other situations when it is closely packed, and where the air 
has imperfect access. These last two points are of immense im- 
portance as bearing upon the question of the preservation of the 
poison in infected pens and yards, alike in winter and in summer, 
to say nothing of its possible conveyance by means of fodder or 
other vehicles." 

Incubation. 

According to the average drawn from a large number of obser- 
vations, the period of incubation varies from five to fifteen days. 

Intea-vital Phenomena. 

One of the very earliest symptoms is a marked rise in the tem- 
perature of the hog ; yet the fact is not without some questionable 
diagnostic value : first, on account of the variations which seem to 
exist in the normal temperature of different hogs ; and, second, the 
difficulty which the struggle of the pig throws in the way of the 
proper application of the thermometer, which may in some cases 
cause a more or less marked rise in the temperature. Detmers does 
not consider the thermometer of any great value in the diagnosis 
or prognosis of this disease. The disease frequently announces it- 
self by a cold shivering on the part of the afflicted swine, lasting 
from a few moments to several hours, frequent sneezing, and more 
or less coughing. 

These anticipatory symptoms are soon followed by a more or less 
loss of appetite, a rough and somewhat staring condition of the 
bristles, a drooping of the ears, loss of vivacity, and in some cases 
by vomiting ; a desire to bury themselves in the bedding and to lie 
down in dark and quiet corners ; a dull and injected condition of 



46 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

the eyes ; swelling of the head, eruptions upon the ears and other 
parts of the body ; occasionally bleeding from the nose, and partial 
or total blindness ; dizziness, diarrhoea, and stertorous breathing. 
The flanks fall in, and the animals rapidly become emaciated, and 
betray a vitiated appetite for dung, dirt, and saline substances ; in- 
creased thirst, accumulation of secretions in the canthi of the eyes, 
and more or less copious nasal discharges. The peculiar offensive 
and fetid smell of the exhalations and excrements may be looked 
upon as characteristics of this disease. This odor is so penetrating as 
to announce the presence of the disease, especially if the herd of 
swine be a large one, at a distance of half a mile, or even more, if 
the direction of the wind be favorable. If the animals are inclined 
to be costive, the faeces are generally grayish or brownish-black in 
color, and hard ; if diarrhoea is present, they are semi-fluid, of a 
grayish-green color, and in some cases contain an admixture of 
blood. In a large number of cases the more tender portions of the 
skin on the lower surface of the body, between the posterior ex- 
tremities, behind the ears, or even on the nose and neck, exhibit 
numerous larger or smaller red spots, or sometimes a uniform red- 
ness. Toward the fatal termination, this redness frequently changes 
to a purple color. The physical examination of the thorax reveals, if 
pleuritis be present, the characteristic crepitation. As the patholog- 
ical processes progress, the movements of the afflicted animal become 
weaker and slower, the gait staggering and uncertain ; sometimes 
paretic phenomena appear, especially in the posterior portions of the 
body. If still standing, the head becomes much depressed, but, as a 
rule, the diseased animals are found lying down in a dark and se- 
cluded corner, with the nose buried in the bedding. An extremely 
fetid diarrhoea frequently marks the approach of a slow, fatal termi- 
nation of the disease ; the voice becomes very peculiar, faint, and 
hoarse, the sick animal manifests the greatest indifference to its 
surroundings ; emaciation and general debility increase very fast ; 
the skin is hard, dry, and dirty, the more so according to the dura- 
tion of the disease ; death ensues under convulsions, or very quickly ; 
in some cases a cold, clammy perspiration breaks out over the body. 
Wherever pigs or hogs have been ringed, the wounds thus made 
betray a great inclination to ulceration. In those few cases which 
do not terminate fatally, the symptoms gradually disappear ; the 
cough becomes more frequent but less laborious, the discharge from 
the nose becomes for a day or two more copious, but soon diminishes, 
and the offensive odor of the excrements disappears ; existing sores 
or ulcers have a tendency to heal ; the animal becomes more live- 



HOG-CHOLERA. 47 

ly, and gains slowly in flesh and strength ; a short, hacking cough 
frequently continues for a long time. 

Pathological Phenomena. 

The morbid processes, though essentially the same, can have their 
seat in many different organs or parts of the body. The necro- 
scopical aspects of the disease are consequently not always the 
same. 

We almost always find a more or less extensive infiltration of 
portions of the lungs, as well as serous hemorrhagic conditions in 
the pulmonary tissues. In some cases the infiltrated conditions of 
the lungs are so extensive that they sink when thrown into water. 
The degree of consolidation is largely dependent upon the duration 
of the disease. In some lungs these centers of consolidation were 
circumscribed and rare, while in others they were diffuse, and com- 
plicated a large portion of the lung. Where the consolidation was 
limited, it was principally seated in the anterior lobes. In animals 
where the disease had progressed slowly, the different stages, or bet- 
ter conditions of consolidation were observable, conforming to the 
red, brown, or gray hepatization of pathologists — conditions of color 
dependent on the amount of blood present in the infiltrated pul- 
monary tissues. The greater the endothelial proliferation, and accu- 
mulation of inflammatory products, the greater the pressure exerted 
upon the capillary loops dipping into the alveoli ; hence the variation 
in color, red, brown, or gray. 

The lymphatic and mesenteric glands were invariably found to 
be enlarged. In some cases they presented a brownish or blackish 
color, and contained not only disintegrated elements but extravasa- 
tions which lay between and separated the normal elements of the 
glands. 

The trachea and bronchi were filled with more or less frothy 
mucus, which contained desquamated epithelium and bacteria. The 
mucous membrane was more or less tumefied and congested. 

Morbid changes were almost invariably present in the pleurae, 
mediastinum, and pericardium, as well as slight effusions in the 
cavities of the chest and abdomen. Pleural adhesions were fre- 
quently met with, as well as deposits upon the free surface of the 
membranes. 

The heart (myocardium) was found to be complicated in the 
majority of cases. In some animals it was flabby and dilated, and 
generally congested. In the majority of cases pathological changes, 
which may be said to be pathognomonic, were found in the caecum 



48 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

and colon. These consisted of peculiar growths or ulcerous tumors 
in the mucosa. (Whether these were limited to the Peyer's patches 
or not the report does not say.) They varied in size and shape, and 
were more or less prominent above the general surface of the mu- 
cosa. The base of the older ones was frequently more or less pig- 
mented. Their size varied from that of a pin's head to a quarter of 
a dollar. The smaller ones were generally of a yellowish color, and 
projected but slightly ; the larger ones were of a grayish-brown 
color, or even blackish, and had usually a slight concavity in the 
center. The greater part of these growths consisted of connective 
tissue. In some cases these growths, especially the smaller ones, 
or those of recent origin, were situated upon the surface of the mu- 
cosa, and were easily scraped off, leaving behind an uneven, excori- 
ated surface, having the appearance of granulation tissue. The 
older and larger tumors penetrated more deeply into the substance 
of the mucosa — in some cases so deeply that their removal caused 
perforation of the walls of the intestine. Similar productions were 
also found in other parts of the intestine. 

The contents of the gall-bladder were found, in many cases, to 
consist of a semi-solid, granular, dirty-brownish substance. In most 
of them the ductus choledochus appeared to be thickened, so that 
the semi-solid condition of the bile might be attributed to absorption 
of its fluid elements, due to retention. 

Morbid changes in the skin were frequently met with, consisting 
of ulcers, purple spots or patches, or diffuse redness. 

The blood presented both qualitative and quantitative changes. 
It was dirt-colored in all cases where death had been caused by ex- 
tensive pulmonary complications, but was thin and light-colored 
where pathological changes predominated in other parts of the or- 
ganism. It invariably coagulated on exposure to the atmosphere. 
The kidneys exhibited no very marked change. 

Microscopic Observations. (Law.) 

Skin. — Microscopic sections through the affected portions of the 
skin showed the various grades of congestion, with blocking of the 
capillaries, and an excess of lymphoid and large granular cells and 
pigment granules with extravasations and necrotic centers. With 
the earlier congestion there is more or less anasarca and consequent 
separation of the elements of the cutis, while in the later or more 
severe conditions a fibrinous exudation takes place, and this may 
even exude upon the free surface and form dark scabs. In no in- 
stance was formation of pus in the skin to be seen. One feature, 



HOG-CHOLERA. 49 

which does not seem to have been hitherto observed, was the impli- 
cation of the bristle-follicles. 

Intestines. — Sections through those portions of the intestines 
which are merely congested and reddened, but without ulceration, 
show stagnation and blocking of the capillaries of the mucosa and 
sub-mucosa, with thickening and softening of the tissues, especially 
of the epithelium. This last contains a great excess of granules, 
and aggregations of the same into cell-forms, while the epithelial 
cells are reduced in size and contain enlarged nuclei. As has been 
pointed out by Klein, the degeneration is often the greatest around 
the openings of the crypts of Lieberkuhn, and in their interior, 
while their cavities are frequently filled with extravasated blood. 
Aside from the above one frequently finds lymphoid and migrated 
blood-cells, hsematine crystals, and micrococci. 

The ulcers, with a central slough, present at their base the same 
characteristics as the congested mucous membrane. The slough is 
mainly composed of small nucleated cells and granules, and mi- 
crococci. 

Lymphatic Glands. — The obstruction of the capillaries and ex- 
travasation of blood are most common in the cortical portion of the 
gland ; when the medullary portion is complicated, the extravasated 
blood is oftenest met with in the lymph-channels and inter-stromatous 
spaces, while the parenchyma seems to escape. The cellular changes 
are most marked in the protracted cases of the disease. 

Organs of Respiration. — The characteristic lesion of the lungs 
is lobular pneumonia ; the exudation being most abundant in the 
interlobular connective tissues, and is often of a dark color on ac- 
count of the presence of red blood-cells. A microscopic section 
transverse to the bronchioli and alveoli reveals the presence of an 
exudation containing a large number of round lymphoid cells, gran- 
ules, and in the alveoli similar accumulations. 

Kidneys. — Clouded swelling of the cortical, with consequent 
hypersemia of the medullary, substance. 

Blood. — In most cases no changes were to be observed except 
the presence of numerous bacteria. No such organisms were to be 
found in the blood of a healthy pig. 

Diagnosis. — From the foregoing detailed description of the 
phenomena of this disease, it is evident that there is but little 
difficulty in its correct recognition, especially when appearing in a 
number of swine at the same time. 

Prognosis. — This is always unfavorable, for even though indi- 
viduals may survive the attack, still the ravages of the disease are 
4 



50 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

such, as to almost destroy their value as marketable animals from 
an economical point of view. 

Treatment. — On account of its difficulties, medicinal treatment 
of swine is in general almost useless, and with this disease truly so ; 
the antizymotics are, however, indicated in unison with tonics. 

Prevention. 

As in all infectious diseases, of whatever nature, the aim of 
modern medicine is prevention. On account of the great liability 
to extension peculiar to this porcine pest, the regulations of prevent- 
ive medicine must be fully as much of a general as of a local 
character. 

"We shall follow Mr. Law in considering this question. He says : 

" One farmer may easily eradicate it from his swine, but, so long 
as it continues to prevail among those of his neighbors, his stock is 
daily subjected to the danger of renewed infection." 

This being the fact with reference to the individual farmer, it is 
equally the case in every township, county, or State. In our East- 
ern States the pest is almost invariably due to the importation of 
diseased stock, and, though from the lack of pigs it never gains 
wide extension, it illustrates the infectious nature of the disease in 
the West. To secure a complete or even restricted immunity from 
its ravages, active measures must be taken over the entire land, and 
this can only be done under the supervision of one central, con- 
trolling power, with the necessary number of local authorities. 

The following measures should be adopted : 

1. The appointment of local inspectors to carry out the measures 
necessary to suppress the disease. 

2. The injunction on all having the care of or ownership of hogs, 
and upon all who may be called upon to advise concerning the same, 
or to treat them, to make known to such local authorities all recog- 
nized or suspected cases of the disease, under a penalty for any and 
every neglect of such duty. 

3. The obliging of the local authorities, under the advice of a 
competent veterinary inspector, to see to the absolute destruction of 
all pigs suffering from the pest, and all that have been in contact 
with them, and their burial in some isolated place, and the thorough 
disinfection of the pens, utensils, and persons around them. 

(It will frequently be found most advantageous to the interests 
of all concerned, to kill and bury the hogs in their pens, and to 
burn the latter, when of wood, as well as the utensils, and to erect 
new pens at some place properly distant for any new lot of hogs.) 



HOG-CHOLERA. 51 

4. The complete isolation of all domestic animals which have 
been in contact with the diseased pigs, and in all cases of sheep and 
rabbits, the destruction of the sick when this shall be deemed neces- 
sary. 

5. "When all the pigs in an infected herd have not been de- 
stroyed, the remainder should be placed upon an official register, 
and subjected to daily inspection by the veterinary inspector, so 
that the sick may be removed and killed on the first indication of 
disease. 

6. Sheep and rabbits which have been in contact with diseased 
hogs should be treated likewise, and none should be removed from 
the flock until after the lapse of a month from the last appearance 
of disease among them. 

7. All animals and birds, wild or tame, and all persons except 
those employed in the work, must be carefully excluded from the 
infected premises, and until the same have been pronounced safe, 
after careful disinfection, etc. 

8. The losses sustained by owners from the compulsory slaughter 
of their hogs should be made good by a valuation to be fixed by a 
competant board of assessors. 

9. Such reimbursement should be forfeited by owners who fail 
to comply with the law in properly notifying the authorities of the 
real existence or suspicion of the presence of the pest among their 
swine. 

10. A register should be kept, in prescribed form, of all hogs 
kept on farms within a certain radius of infected herds — say one 
mile — and no removal of such animals should be permitted until 
the disease had been pronounced at an end, unless by special license 
from the competent authorities, after the veterinary inspector had 
pronounced the herd in question to be absolutely free from every 
suspicion of the disease. 

11. Railroad and shipping agents of adjoining stations to in- 
fected districts should be forbidden to ship pigs, excepting by license 
of the local authorities, until the plague has been pronounced at an 
end in such districts. 

12. When infected pigs have been conveyed by rail, boat, or 
other means of transport, measures should be taken to insure the 
thorough disinfection of such vehicles of transport, as well as the 
barns, docks, or yards, or other places into which the diseased ani- 
mals may have been turned. 



52 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 

Cattle assume by far the first place among our domestic ani- 
mals, from an economical point of view. The prosperity of a nation 
might well be estimated by its wealth in cattle. Of all animals, 
they supply the greatest proportion of our animal food. "Without 
beef and milk, we could hardly think ourselves capable of existing. 
Assuming this rank, then, as a source of food, it is self-apparent 
that the greatest care should be taken in keeping such animals in a 
hygienic — i. e., healthy — condition. 

Animal hygiene differs much from human : 

1. The animals must be kept healthy. 

2. They must be kept healthy, so that they may yield the great- 
est possible return to the owner, be it work, flesh, milk, or other 
products. 

To attain this end requires the greatest attention on the part of 
the owners. 

To attain it economically, the owner must pay attention to the 
different characteristics of each animal, that no food goes to waste. 
One animal fattens easier than another on the same amount of food. 
One cow yields more milk, or one ox performs a like amount of 
work upon food that its neighbor will not thrive upon. 

But in many instances, and it is with these we have especially to 
do, animal hygiene imposes upon the owner a responsibility that has, 
up to the present time, almost escaped appreciation. 

It is the imperative duty of owners, or breeders of animals, to 
study every influence that may possibly have an injurious effect 
upon them, when destined to be articles of human consumption, 
either as flesh or milk. 

Thus we see that the interests of public health demand the 
greatest and most studious care of the water, feeding, and surround- 
ings of such animals. 

We are not going too far when we assert that this branch of 
animal hygiene has been almost entirely neglected, not only by the 
owner, but by scientists as well. 

Tape-worms are not by any means an uncommon occurrence in 
man, yet how few people realize that one variety is derived from 
the consumption of improperly cooked beef ! 

An instance comes to our mind of an M. D., who enjoyed a large 
practice, that came to us with the segments of a tape-worm, but 
could not believe it was, because the patient never ate any pork. 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 53 

On being told that man also obtains such a parasite from eating 
beef, he was completely surprised. 

The name which science has given to this parasite is Tcenia 
medlo-canellata, or, better, saginata. 

This parasite exceeds in length that which we have previously 
described as being obtained from pork. Its sections, or proglottids, 
are also broader and thicker. Tcenia solium, or armata, derived 
from pork, has its scolex, or head, armed with hooks, which is not 
the case with the one we are at present considering. This fact at 
first led naturalists to think they had before them one and the same 
tape-worm, the differences in appearance and formation of the heads 
representing different stages of development, the armed parasite 
representing a youthful, the unarmed an aged, period in its exist- 
ence. This has been clearly demonstrated to be a mistake. Pro- 
glottids of taenia saginata fed to young swine failed to produce cys- 
ticerci, or measles, while the same when fed to calves were followed 
by positive results — i. e., the development of cysticerci of the un- 
armed tape-worm in the interfibrillar tissue (Leuckart, Mosler, et al.). 

As to their presence in cattle, Dr. Thudicum * says : 

" The question why the cysticerci of taenia saginata have never 
been observed in the flesh of cattle, with the exception of those 
cases in which they have been intentionally reared, is of great inter- 
est and importance, from a sanitary point of view. It is possible 
that these bladder-worms are present in the musculature of cattle in 
very small numbers only, and consequently do not present any such 
striking appearance on section of the muscles as is produced by 
measles in the muscles of swine. For while a pig would devour an 
entire tape-worm if it came in its way, a calf would refuse to eat it, 
if it could avoid doing so ; hence, only free eggs or single proglot- 
tids, adhering to or concealed in the herbs making up the ordinary 
food of cattle, could be introduced into their systems. Thus, cattle 
driven along a road or path would be liable to snatch a mouthful of 
grass, and with it a proglottid of the bookless or five-cupped tape- 
worm. The very circumstance of the scarcity of cysticerci in the 
flesh of cattle facilitates their importation into the human intestines. 
The single specimens are not discovered, and consequently not 
avoided; hence, the taenia derived from them live in almost all 
countries of our globe, and infest the black and white man, the 
Mongol, the Malay, and the Indian. I have examined many thou- 
sands of specimens of beef from many hundreds of bodies of beeves, 
and have never yet found a cysticercus of this taenia in the flesh or 

* Report to the Privy Council of Great Britain. See seventh report, London, 1865. 



54 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

any other organ. Probably if calves and heifers were systematically 
dissected with the same care as human bodies, these cysticerci would 
appear as frequently as the trichinae or the cysticercus cellulosae in 
man, both which parasites were discovered in the anatomical thea- 
tre, and without anatomical dissection would no doubt have eluded 
the vigilance of science much longer." 

As said previously, taenia saginata is found in man in all parts 
of the world. It seems far to exceed taenia solium in its prevalence 
among the inhabitants of Austria proper and Lower Germany, while 
in North Germany taenia solium is more frequently met with. It 
has been met with in England, and a case of invasion is also report- 
ed in an Indian in our own country ; but well-ordered statistics in 
this regard are so out of the general course of events in these two 
countries, that we are not justified in assuming that the populations 
of the same are so much favored above their fellow-men in other 
countries. 

With reference to protection from this parasite — 

1. We must have a well-organized system of inspection of all 
animals slaughtered, by competently educated men. 

2. The people must be educated in a knowledge of these dan- 
gers, and also in the means necessary to their prevention. 

a. Without the active co-operation of the people, we can hope for 
little successful reform in this country. 

3. The consumption of undercooked meat must be looked upon 
as dangerous to health. 

Cattle are also subject to several diseases which threaten the 
public health, from the fact that they are transmissible to man by 
means of infectious elements peculiar to each of them. . 

" Foot-and-mouth disease " is the common name given to a pe- 
culiar vesicular eruption which afflicts cattle on the parts indicated 
by the above name, as well as upon the udder of milch-cows. 

This disease has also been observed in sheep, swine, goats, the 
deer family, occasionally in the horse, and cases have been reported 
among dogs and turkeys. Further, numerous cases of infection 
have been reported among human beings. 

Fleming says : " It has caused almost as much loss and trouble 
to the farmers of Britain as has the contagious bovine lung-plague. 
In 1876-'77 this disease was reported as infecting 11,064 cattle, 
4,809 sheep, and 1,904 swine in the kingdom of Prussia. It is 
needless to say that no statistics exist as to its extension among cat- 
tle and other animals in the United States." 

The asssertion that animals affected with it have been exported 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 55 

from this country and landed in England, makes it probable that 
the disease has attained a foothold among our animals. But where ? 

Veterinary science is in a state so much less than embryonal 
in this country, that no one knows whence these animals came; 
whether they were diseased when leaving here, or what portion of 
them was diseased. 

This disease is transmissible to man. So far as my knowledge 
extends, this has only taken place from diseased cows. 

Valentine, of Italy, 1695, noticed the synchronous appearance of 
a pustulous eruption in the mouths of human beings, and a similar 
disease among cattle. Sagad, 1764, was the first to notice that hu- 
man beings acquired the eruption from the consumption of milk 
from cows affected with the same. Hertwig (of the Veterinary 
Institute, Berlin, Prussia) first proved the same by direct experi- 
ment. He drank daily for four consecutive days a quart of milk 
taken from cows having the disease. On the second day he ob- 
served a mild fever, pains in the limbs, headache, a dry and hot 
throat, and a peculiar sensation in the hands and fingers. These 
mild phenomena continued about five days ; then the lining of the 
mouth became swollen, especially the covering of the tongue. In 
a short time small vesicles began to develop. At the same time 
that these eruptions appeared in the mouth and on the lips, ap- 
peared an eruption of similar character upon the hands and fingers. 
Two medical practitioners also subjected themselves to the same 
experiment, and at the same time similar results followed. All 
three recovered completely. (Bollinger, in Ziemssen's " Handbuch 
der Pathologie," vol. iii, p. 637.) 

The danger from the consumption of the milk of cows afflicted 
with this eruption is most emphatically demonstrated by the fact 
that young animals fed upon the same frequently perish in conse- 
quence of gastro-enteritis, i. e., inflammation of stomach and bowels. 

For man, milk from such cows, to which ninety per cent normal 
milk has been added, is still dangerous when consumed. Cooking 
the milk from such cows completely destroys its infectious qualities. 

Bollinger gives the following examples of the eruption of the 
disease in human beings by indirect infection : 

"A boy had a severe aphthous eruption in the mouth after 
biting the edge of a pail which was polluted with the droolings 
from the mouth of a diseased cow." "A man accidentally infected 
himself by putting between his teeth a knife which had been pol- 
luted in the same manner." " Another infected himself by chew- 
ing a piece of wood which had been used to clean the mouth of a 



56 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

diseased cow." " A veterinarian had a long-continued and painful 
eruption in the mouth from touching the internal part of the same 
with his finger after having handled a diseased cow." 

In the " Preussische Mittheil. aus. d. thierarztlichen Praxis," 
1874:-'75, are given three cases of aphthous eruption in the mouths 
of men who had drunk buttermilk which had been taken from a 
cow having foot-and-mouth disease. 

On account of the paucity of observations from competent medi- 
cal men, little is known about the disposition of mankind to this dis- 
ease. Doubtless, as in other infectious and contagious diseases, some 
persons have a far greater disposition to infection than others. Bol- 
linger says, " Notwithstanding the ruling opinion to the contrary, the 
disease is much more frequent among human beings than expected." 

Numerous observations have been made of the synchronous en- 
zootic eruptions of this disease among cattle and an eruption in the 
mouth of human beings. 

The outbreak of this disease among human beings is only to be 
prevented by competently educated and trustworthy veterinary in- 
spectors for all dairies, and by the exact isolation of all diseased 
animals. 

Such milk might be cooked before being offered for sale ; but 
the danger of insufficient or neglected cooking is too great to justify 
such a procedure, so that its sale should be strictly forbidden, and, 
if persevered in, as strictly punished. 

Such milk, after leing tltoroughly cooked^ could be appropriately 
used for feeding swine. Whether the consumption of butter and 
cheese made from such milk is dangerous to mankind is an open 
question requiring more extended and critical observation. 

Another subject which has not, as yet, received by any means 
the attention which it deserves is, the changes produced in milk 
chemically, and especially microscopically, by the presence of in- 
flammatory conditions of the udder of the cow. 

a. The influences of such milk should be critically tested by 
means of feeding experiments upon young and healthy animals of 
the same and different species ; controlled by feeding young ani- 
mals from the same mother, or of as nearly as possible like age and 
constitution, upon the same material. 

h. Are there in such milk, from diseased udders or single cisterns 
of the same, such microscopic changes as to allow their recognition 
when mixed with milk from perfectly healthy cows ? 

Fiirstenberg * has gone into this subject with no inconsiderable 

* " Die Milchdriisen der Kuh," Leipzig, 1868. 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 57 

degree of exactness. From his and other researches it is evident 
that changes in the constitution of the milk are produced by so 
slight a change from normality as a hypersemic (increase of the 
quantity of blood) condition of the interstitial and subcutaneous tis- 
sues of the udder. A comparison of such milk with normal, or, 
when but one cistern is complicated, with milk from the other cis- 
terns of the same udder, has shown that the solid elements are greatly 
augmented at the expense of the fluid ; especially are the casein and 
albumen augmented, while the normal milk contains more milk- 
sugar, and the so-called "extractives" in greater quantity. The 
inorganic elements are also considerably increased in the milk from 
diseased udders. 

In other words, such milk assumes characters simulating those 
of colostrum, containing the well-known colostrum bodies, having a 
yellowish- white color, is viscid, and coagulates easily. In such a 
secretion, Fiirstenberg found the results of chemical analysis to be 
as follows : 

Water 81-789 

Solids 18-211 



Total 100-000 

The solid elements were : 



Fat 5 

Casein and albumen 8 

Milk-sugar and extractives 3 

Salts 1 



Total 18 

These 1*044 salts consisted of : 

Phosphoric salts and oxide of iron 

Carbonates of lime 

Chloride of sodium (cooking-salt) 

Soda 

Traces of sulphuric acid 



210 
887 
070 
044 



Total , 



211 



384 
108 
003 
549 
000 



044 



From the non-diseased parts of the same udder the results of the 
analysis were as follows : 

Water 88-583 

Solids 11 -417 

Total 100-000 



58 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The 1141Y solids were : 

Fat 3 

Casein 3 

Milk-sugar and extractives 4 

Salts 



405 
218 
092 
702 



Total 11 -417 

The mineral elements were : 

Phosphoric earths and oxide of iron 0*317 

Carbonates of lime 0*146 

Chloride of sodium 0*004 

Soda • 0*325 

Traces of sulphuric acid 0*000 



Total 0*702 

The same is true, except in degree, of the more excessive grades 
of inflammation. The important question is. Is such milk harm- 
ful, and to what extent f 

May not the only too frequent cases of so-called " summer-com- 
plaint " of children, especially of those brought up on the bottle, be 
traceable, in a measure, to feeding them upon milk containing these 
colostrum-like elements ? 

We know that colostrum exerts a gentle purgative influence. Is 
it, then, going too far to (in an a priori manner) assume that such 
milk, when continually given, may produce more serious and lasting 
effects ? 

This can only be proved by direct experiment upon young ani- 
mals, which can not be done except at some expense to the State. 
It is, indeed, done by children, at no expense to the State, but at a 
fearful cost of human life, and all that is needed to close the evi- 
dence of this human vivisection is the competent veterinary expert 
at the milk-fountain end of the route, and the exact medical observer 
at the other. I think there would be little difficulty in establishing 
the connection between cause and effect, if animal life is not too 
precious and too tender for sentimental persons who esteem it above 
human at the present day. While every one is crying out for more 
economy in reference to State expenses, and while many expenses 
can doubtless be cut down with great benefit to the people — for in- 
stance, the number of representatives might be greatly lessened, 
with a corresponding increase in quality — might it not be well to 
call to mind the old adage that " it is not well to hold on to the spile 
with all one's might, and not look out for the bung." 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 59 

The work of State boards of health is not surely to be limited to 
gathering statistics of mortality in man, or inspecting our water- 
sources alone, but should extend to the investigation of those experi- 
ments by which alone the true causes of disease may be discovered. 
We are too apt to satisfy ourselves with fine-sounding hypotheses 
with regard to the origin of many so-called strange diseases, which 
a few exact experiments would soon send to the winds, and which 
would lead to the discovery, if not of the cause or causes, certainly 
of means for their prevention. 

The real germ of small-pox contagion has never yet been posi- 
tively isolated, although many fond supporters of the micrococcus- 
germ theory cherish an idea to.the contrary ; yet careful experiment 
and exact observation, in unison with practical experience, have 
taught us that exact attention to, and universal application of, vacci- 
nation, is an almost infallibly sure means of prevention against its 
deadly ravages. 

With regard to this very milk question, a few facts, gained from 
actual experiment, are worth thousands of surmises from practicing 
physicians. 

To this end State boards of health should have at their com- 
mand an experiment station, under the control of a competently 
educated person as superintendent and observer of the experiments. 
Such a person should be a veterinarian, and be at the same time a 
member of the State Board of Health ; the advantage to such boards 
of such a member is by no means appreciated at the present time, 
either by the members of such boards or by the people at large. 

With reference to the expenses of such a station, the question 
for legislators, and also for the people, to consider, is not one of im- 
mediate outlay, but whether it is cheaper to spend a few thousand 
dollars yearly for experiments, or to have causes of disease, and 
sometimes death, existing for years, which it is possible to discov- 
er, or at least to find means to prevent their action. 

Another most important question to which I desire to call atten- 
tion is, Have States or cities done their whole duty when they have 
appointed inspectors to examine milk after it has left the producer, 
as it is ready for delivery to the consumer ? 

If, as I can but think, experiment will prove that the consump- 
tion of milk from cows having diseased udders, so called " garget," 
is fraught with danger to human health, then city inspection, or de- 
livery inspection, is next to useless, and the place for the most im- 
portant inspection is at the stable of the producer. 

All such cows should be isolated by an official veterinary in- 



60 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

spector, and the sale of the milk from such isolated cows for human 
consumption should be punished by most severe penalties. 

In fact, the inspection of the milk as it is delivered to the dis- 
tributors for immediate consumption can only lead to the discovery 
of dilution — that is, cheating in value — never to the discovery of an 
unhealthy or absolutely diseased fountain-head, i. e., cow or cows. 

The unquestionable guaranteeing to the public that the cows 
producing the milk are healthy is, in my opinion, far more a matter 
of necessity, from a hygienic point of view, than the discovery of a 
varying degree of watery dilution, always providing the water it- 
self is pure. In the one case, we have discovered a simple swindle ; 
in the other, what might prove to be the cause of serious constitu- 
tional disturbances among the consumers. 

It may not be known to many milk-producers that medicine given 
internally, and many things, such as salves and dressings, especially 
those used against insects, applied outwardly, are capable of exert- 
ing an influence upon milk which is very likely to be disturbing, or 
even injurious, in a far more serious degree to the consumers. 

The following examples, casually gathered in my reading, will 
sufficiently testify to this remark : 

Guenther * found antimony in milk after feeding the tartrate 
to a cow. Harms observed a hemorrhagic diarrhoea in two dogs 
and three young goats, after feeding them with the milk from a cow 
which had been given a large dose of the above-mentioned tartrate 
— forty-six grammes — the .day before. 

Klink f demonstrated the presence of quicksilver in the milk of 
a woman afflicted with syphilis, that had been subjected to the blue- 
ointment treatment. 

According to Henry and Chevallier, cooking-salt, bicarbonate of 
soda, sulphate of soda, and iodide of potassium, may be discovered 
in milk when given to animals. 

Twelve cows were so infected by carbolic acid, which had been 
used in a strong solution to disinfect the stable, that human beings 
who used the milk, both cooked and uncooked, became sick, but 
finally recovered. X 

A large number of persons in Rome were poisoned from the 
use of goat's milk. || The disease, as it appeared in these people, 
was strongly characteristic of cholera. Some persons recovered in 

* " Jahresbericht d. Thierarzneischule zu Hannover," No. 6, p. 72. 
\ " Vierteljahrsschrift fur Dermatologie u. Syphilis," 1876, p. 20*7. 
X Scholtz, "Preussische Mittheil.," 1874-'75, p. 109. 
I " Med. u. Chirurg. Centralblatt," 1875. 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. Ql 

the course of seventy-four hours, but the majority were ill for some 
four or five days. The violence of the symptoms was in direct pro- 
portion to the quantity of milk consumed. The suspected goats 
were subjected to a careful examination by a veterinarian, but noth- 
ing abnormal discovered. Their food was next critically examined, 
and the following four poisonous plants were found in it : " conium 
maculatum," " clematis vitalba," " colchicum autumnale," " plum- 
bago Europea." An examination of the milk vomited by the sick 
people revealed the presence of colchicum, which was looked upon 
as the cause of the disturbance. 

Tuberculosis of Cattle. 

This disease of cattle, but especially the milch-cow, is now play- 
ing a most sensational rdle in the discussions of hygienists, more 
especially those of Germany. 

That the tendency or disposition to this disease is transmissible 
from parents to offspring has been placed beyond all question by 
the observation and experience of stock-raisers. This fact is also 
well enough known, but by far too little appreciated, by human be- 
ings with reference to their own race. 

Dr. Bowditch, of Boston, has clearly shown the influence which 
long-continued residence in low, damp, unhealthy localities has upon 
the generations of the older New England families in extending or 
keeping alive this disease ; but the medical profession has been alto- 
gether too silent with regard to hereditary influences. 

Mueller * says that, basing his opinion upon 988 cases of per- 
sonal observation during the course of nine years, in 21*8 per cent 
of the same the parents had also suffered from tubercular consump- 
tion. This percentage increases to 28 - 6 per cent, if we take into 
consideration the grandparents, brothers, and sisters. Other ob- 
servers assume that thirty-eight per cent of the deaths from tuber- 
cular consumption in human beings is due to hereditary influence. 
If, as said, stock-raisers have learned a lesson from costly experience 
in this regard, and are applying principles of selection or exclusion 
in their breeding of animals, is it too late to apply like principles to 
human beings % 

Is it not high time that the principles of scientific breeding 
should be applied by man to his own species? Beauty, form, 
money, position, should all play their appropriate part in the selec- 
tion of the partner for life by man or woman ; but, as the natural 
result of marriage, as the result of being made male and female, is 

* " Inaugural Dissertation," Berne, 1876. 



62 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

the production of children, is it not still more imperatively de- 
manded of us to take the health of these products of our lust more 
frequently than our good sense into earnest consideration by select- 
ing a partner from families in which these tendencies have attained 
the least possible strength % 

Have we any right to condemn children thus to lives of misery 
and early graves? "What stock-raisers do for their pockets, man- 
kind should certainly have sense enough to do for their own off- 
spring. 

" 'Tis through ignorance they do it." 

The blame falls upon the shoulders of an incompetent, avari- 
cious medical profession. Consumptive families bring large fees, 
help to buy corner-lots, and enable the great doctor to ride com- 
fortably about with coupe and coachman. 

But to return to our subject. This disease of cattle has been 
practically known to exist for a long time. Its cause has been sought 
in all sorts of absurdities, such as acrid or irritable substances in 
food or water. Even hereditary influences failed for a long time of 
their due appreciation. In Germany the disease is also known as 
the " Franzosenkrankheit," or French disease. It probably received 
the name when everything evil which befell the German race was 
only too willingly attributed to their French neighbors as well as 
conquerors. 

The first intimation that some irritating or infectious elements 
were contained in the milk of cows having this disease is due to 
Gerlach, the most noted of all German veterinarians, and late di- 
rector of the Royal Veterinary Institute at Berlin. 

The experiments of Yillemin, Klebs, Orth, and many others, 
have amply demonstrated that the elements from tuberculous dis- 
eased lungs, lymph-glands, and other organs, contained some pe- 
culiar infectious material capable of producing a similar disease 
when inoculated upon, or in some cases fed to, animals by way of 
experiment. 

With reference to the milk of tuberculous diseased cows, the 
honor of priority is unquestionably Gerlach's. 

Here we have to do with a question of manifold character. Not 
only is the public health threatened, but both the nation and each 
individual dairyman, or cow-owner, has to face a question of no 
secondary economical importance. 

If the experimental results obtained by Gerlach and other ob- 
servers, both German and French, become universally accepted, then 
governments have no other recourse than to order the most exact 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 63 

supervision of the cattle in their respective countries, by which the 
disease may be discovered, and their sale as meat at the earliest pos- 
sible moment of such as are suitable. All others, in which this is 
found unjustifiable on account of their condition, must be turned 
over to the knacker. 

The loss and expense of such a procedure can be best appreci- 
ated by the expert acquainted with the extreme extension which 
this disease has acquired among cattle, especially milch-cows. 

If any government undertakes to stamp out this disease, it will 
find difficulties by far exceeding those connected with a similar pro- 
cess by any other contagious malady. 

The adage, " Touch a man's pocket and you touch his heart," 
will be more than sufficiently verified. 

In Germany, where the majority of the milch-cows are stall-fed, 
and that, too, in poorly ventilated, ill-arranged stables, this disease 
has acquired an extension of which we can at present make no ap- 
preciation in this country. 

The assertion of the infectiousness of the milk from such cows 
raised a perfect storm of abuse in Germany, which poured down on 
the asserter's head until he died. The more ignorant, lazy, and 
indifferent men were, the louder they abused. Many men who were 
professors at the schools joined in the cry, " Down with him ! " 
without ever making the attempt to prove the assertions wrong 
by direct experiment. Succeeding experiments have, however, es- 
sentially strengthened the assertions of Gerlach. 

As these first experiments * with reference to so momentous a 
question are worthy of all attention, I take the liberty of noticing 
a very few of them in this place. 

Having a cow afflicted with tuberculosis that still gave milk, 
it was resolved to use the same to test the question " whether the 
milk from such a cow is capable of producing a similar disease in 
young animals when fed upon it." f 

The cow was seven or eight years old, much emaciated, respira- 
tion difficult, and had a rough, weak cough ; vesicular respiration 
perceptible over all parts of the thorax which inclose the lungs, but 
numerous unnatural, especially dry " rales " were perceptible. In 
710 place was the percussion deadened. No fever. Appetite good. 
Daily milk quantum, 1,500 grammes. After the lapse of three 

* It is not our purpose here to go into detail with reference to these experiments, but 
we will refer those interested to the " Veterinary Journal," London (England), vols, viii 
ix, and x, where they will find abundant material. 

f Gerlach, " Experiments with Reference to the Milk of Cows having Tuberculosis.' 
" Jahresbericht d. Thierarzneischule zu Hannover," 1868-69. 



64 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

months the cow was killed. The emaciated condition had grad- 
ually increased, the milk-secretion likewise decreasing : in the first 
month the yield of milk decreased 600 grammes ; in the second, 500 
grammes, and during the last eight days the secretion ceased en- 
tirely, although the animal received all the nourishment she could 
consume. 

" Autopsy. — The inner thoracic walls, the diaphragm, and the 
mediastinum were covered with numerous tubercles of variable di- 
mensions ; the pulmonary pleura, or covering of the lungs, was far 
less complicated. The lungs were voluminous, and double their 
normal weight. Nodules and tubercles were distinctly perceptible 
on palpation. The bronchial lymph -glands were hypertrophied — 
enlarged — hard and nodulated. Cross-section of the pulmonary tis- 
sues revealed the presence of numerous tubercles and tuberculous 
devastations ; large and small cavities filled with a muco-purulent 
mass, others with caseous material; numerous miliary tubercles 
were dispersed over the pulmonary tissue." 

"With the milk from this cow were fed two calves, two pigs, one 
sheep, and two rabbits. The first calf died from an accidentally ac- 
quired disease. 

Calf No. 2. — A healthy, well-nourished calf, eight days old, 
was fed with milk from the above-mentioned cow, for a period ex- 
tending over one and two thirds months ; at first it received 1,000 
and later 300 grammes of milk daily, an average of about 650 
grammes per day ; in fifty days the whole quantity of milk con- 
sumed amounted to from 30 to 32 kilogrammes. Aside from this 
the calf received other milk ; later, diluted milk and oatmeal. 
Neither phenomena indicating the presence of disease, nor disturb- 
ance of the nutritive functions, were observable. The calf was 
killed one hundred days from the time that the experimental feed- 
ing began, and fifty days after the feeding with milk from the tu- 
berculous cow had ceased. 

Autopsy. — The pleura of the sharp edges of the right lung was 
covered with delicate red, filamentous excrescences, which extend- 
ed as a fringe about a centimetre beyond the edge of the lung. 
Here and there this neoplastic production formed a connected mem- 
brane in which were to be seen miliary tubercles, as refracting 
points. The costal pleura, the inner lining of the ribs, was also irreg- 
ularly covered with a membrane of similar character. In the lungs 
were to be seen tubercles, otherwise the parenchyma was normal ; 
immediately under the pleura were to be seen four small and six 
miliary tubercles, and eight more were to be seen in the loose inter- 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. (55 

lobular tissue. The smaller tubercles were more transparent, and 
had a grayish color, having a firm organic character ; in the center 
of one of the larger ones was to be seen caseous material. The 
bronchial lymph-glands were much enlarged ; inwardly disturbed 
by many purulent and caseous centers ; here and there lime-salts 
were perceptible; the tuberculous centers extended prominently 
above the cut surface of the gland. The mesenteric and other 
glands presented a similar character. 

The microscopical examinations of the tubercles gave the same 
characteristics as those of man. 

Some of the experiments with the other animals mentioned 
previously gave negative, while others were followed by positive, re- 
sults. 

These and other more recent experiments prove that the milk 
from cows complicated with tuberculosis is not only harmful, but 
that it also contains elements of a specifically dangerous character y 
it is capable of generating elements of a similar character : it there- 
fore bears the character termed infectious. 

While I will not go so far as to consider the above-noticed and 
other experiments as conclusive and unquestionable evidence that 
the milk from tuberculous cows (and why not human mothers ?) will 
at all times produce tuberculosis in young animals fed on the same, 
yet, such is my confidence in the value of the experiments made 
by Gerlach and still later by others, that for myself I have no 
doubt whatever that the milk from tuberculous cows and mothers 
will, in the greater number of cases, generate tubercles in young ani- 
mals when fed with sufficient quantities, and for a sufficient length 
of time, to produce infection. 

The casual reader might perhaps fail to see the point to which 
these conclusions necessarily lead us, viz., that if young animals 
can be thus infected, what is there to prevent the same taking place 
in babes brought up on the bottle ? I do not wish to place myself 
before the public as a visionary alarmist. 

Here are facts, however, induced from carefully executed ex- 
periments, and by a man noted for his exactness and trustworthiness 
in other branches of researches. 

Bollinger has summed up the feeding experiments upon young 
animals, with the milk in question, as follows : 

" Three pigs — one successfully, two doubtful. 

" Three calves — two successfully, one prematurely died. 

" One lamb — one successfully. 

" Two dogs — two negative results. 

5 



QQ THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

" Two cats — two negative results. 

" Fourteen rabbits — two positive, six negative results ; the other 
six were fed upon the milk when boiled, and consequently were 
unaffected." 

The excitement which exists with reference to this disease among 
hygienists, makes it imperative for us to gain all the knowledge we 
can as to the manner of its extension among animals. The follow- 
ing remarks, bearing as they do immediately upon this point, will, 
therefore, not be without interest and benefit to the general 
reader. 

That the sputa from people afflicted with tubercular consump- 
tion contains elements capable of infection, has been placed beyond 
all doubt by means of numerous experiments with dogs where the 
sputa was dispersed by means of a spray-distributor into the air of 
a small room in which the animals were confined for a time each 
day, the balance of the time being allowed freedom in the open air. 
Too many sad cases of death from tubercular consumption have 
been unquestionably traced to the influence of expired air from 
persons having the disease, upon nurses and others around them, 
even in cases where any inherited disposition to the disease could 
be excluded beyond all question. 

Most strikingly, yes, shockingly, illustrating this point, viz., the 
infectiousness of the breath of persons afflicted with tuberculosis, are 
the cases given by Dr. Reich in the "Berliner klinische Wochen- 
schrift," ISTo. 37, 1878 — "Die Tuberculosis eine Infectionskrank- 
heit." In these cases the disease was transmitted to ten children 
by a nurse who had the habit of sucking at, and blowing into the 
mouths of such little ones as were born asphyctic. Dr. Reich sums 
up his observations as follows : 

" 1. In the time which elapsed from the summer of 1875 to the 
fall of 1876 (July 11th to September 29th), there died at Neuen- 
burg, of meningitis tuberculosa, ten children that were born between 
April 4, 1875, and May 10, 1876. 

"2. There was no ascertainable disposition to tuberculosis in 
any of the ten children. 

" 3. All these ten children were brought into the world by the 
nurse Sanger. 

" 4. In the practice of the nurse Regisser (in the same town), 
not one single child died or sickened of tubercular meningitis dur- 
ing the same time. 

" 5. The nurse Sanger suffered from tubercular consumption at 
the time. In July, 1875, an examination of her lungs revealed 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. (57 

cavities in the same, and she raised purulent ichorous sputa. She 
died from the disease July 23, 1876. 

" 6. Nurse Sanger had the habit of removing the mucus from 
the babes' mouths by means of suction with her own ; and of blow- 
ing her own breath into the mouths of asphyctic children ; and, in 
general, treated children in a manner which rendered it possible 
for the expired air from her own lungs to get into theirs, kissing 
them much, etc. 

" 7. In three of the cases of tubercular meningitis which came 
to my personal observation, the sickness began with bronchitis. 

" 8. Meningitis tuberculosa is not an endemic disease among 
children at Neuenburg. In the nine years, from 1 866-' 74, only 
two deaths are reported from this disease among children under 
one year old. Of twelve children, under one year old, that died in 
1877, only one died from this disease; the parents of this child 
were both subjects of tubercular consumption." 

These cases, and those which follow, that were made by an ac- 
complished veterinarian, in connection with the experimental testi- 
mony which we have brought together in a simply suggestive but 
by no means exhaustive form, should be more than sufficient to 
call the attention of every reflecting man and woman to the fact 
that tuberculosis is not only a disease, the disposition to which is 
transmissible from parent to offspring, both human and animal, but 
that it is, under certain circumstances, a highly contagious and in- 
fectious disease. They tell us in warning words that we must not 
only be most careful in selecting our partner for life, but in the 
selection of the nurse, or maid, for children, and, when necessary, 
the cow from which we are to give them milk. 

The influence of the expired air from the lungs of cattle afflicted 
with the disease called tuherculosis tipon other animals of the same 
species confined in the same stable with them. 

This question is one of vast practical and economical impor- 
tance to the farmer and dairyman. I much regret that I am so 
entirely limited to the observations of foreigners upon cattle in 
their own countries rather than to observations gathered in our 
own country; but this fact should stimulate us to more careful 
consideration of these questions, even though it be late in the day 
that we begin. 

A German veterinarian, Albert, contributes a very thoughtful 
and interesting paper, detailing personal observations bearing upon 
this very point, in the " Wochenschrift fair Thierheilkunde," Nos. 
30 and 31, 1880, under the title " The Tuberculosis of Cattle as an 



6g THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Infectious Disease." The following is a free translation of the es- 
sential points of this paper : 

Although heredity is unquestionably a very important cause in 
the generation of this disease among cattle, still it does not suffice 
to explain the great extension which the same acquires among 
them ; especially is it insufficient in answering for the eruption of 
the disease among cattle in stables where no breeding takes place, 
or where the young animals are brought in from other places. In 
such stables other causes must be brought into action, and these are 
the transmission of the disease from one animal to another. I have 
observed that when there is in a stable one individual which contains 
in its organism the conditions necessary to the extension of the dis- 
ease — tubercular process in the lungs — the disease extends to the 
other animals — cattle — in the same stable which have been there 
for a sufficient period. This seems to conform to the fact that 
tuberculosis is a disease peculiar to our domesticated cattle, but not 
to the wild ones of the plains, and agrees with the experience that 
certain stables are looked upon as peculiarly favorable to the gener- 
ation of the disease. 

Of the peculiar metamorphoses which tubercles undergo, those 
of caseous degeneration offer the most favorable conditions for in- 
fecting the expired air of a diseased animal. 

The following cases will answer to illustrate the point in ques- 
tion : 

Case I. — At the time (1848) that the views of veterinary au- 
thors were most crude with regard to the nature of bovine tuber- 
culosis, I had occasion to treat the disease upon a farm where it had 
prevailed for a long time, and caused much loss to the owner. 

Upon the farm were always kept fourteen milch-cows and cattle, 
a bull, and four calves. Of these, four head were sold each year, 
and replaced by the same number of calves. The animals sold 
were not always of the same age each year ; in one year the two 
and three year olds would be sold, in another older cows, and the 
third some of each, according to the fullness of the owner's purse, 
so that there were cattle on the farm two, six, and twelve years 
old. Of these older animals, I found on my first examination two 
afflicted with a rough, dry cough, and with accelerated respiration. 
As I was aware of the constancy with which the disease had pre- 
vailed among the owner's cattle, it was my advice to get rid of these 
two as early as possible. This advice was followed. The cattle 
were fattened, and upon being slaughtered my diagnosis was con- 
firmed. 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 69 

In the mean time every attention was given to the feeding and 
general care of the cattle upon the place. 

In 1851 I again found two of the cattle that coughed, and grad- 
ually became somewhat emaciated. The attempt to fatten them 
was partially successful in one, but failed in the other. Both were 
killed, and tuberculosis found in them. Four calves were placed in 
the spring of 1S52 with the cattle in the old stable, and four others 
placed where they were taken from. All seemed to be healthy to 
the spring of 1854, when one of the calves, which had become three 
years old and had been placed in the old stable, began to cough. 
The cough was at first very slight, but commenced to increase after 
the heifer had calved. In the following summer it again dimin- 
ished, to augment very considerably in the fall. This animal was 
put out to graze in the spring of 1855, and to my surprise became 
quite fat ; but upon being slaughtered the animal was found to be 
highly tuberculous. 

Of the old cattle there still remained a single cow, which we 
will call " A," that had always stood next to the above-mentioned 
animal. All the others had been sold and killed, their places hav- 
ing been filled by new ones. This cow had coughed for a long 
time ; but, not suffering in condition, she had been kept, as she was 
a great favorite with the farmer's wife, especially as I had not then 
the slightest suspicion of infection by means of the atmosphere. 
Every animal which during this period had stood beside this cow 
had begun to cough after a shorter or longer period, and, as the 
positions of the animals were sometimes changed, it happened that 
in course of time nearly all of them began to have the same sus- 
picious cough. 

The continued buying, rearing, and selling of cattle went on for 
nine years before I had opportunity to examine the cow "A," 
which was then sold to a butcher. The examination of the body 
and its contents resulted in finding it highly tuberculous. The re- 
sult of all my experience awakened in me the suspicion of the 
transmission of the disease from animal to animal, an opinion which 
was then considered ridiculous. I communicated my opinion to the 
owner, and advised his selling off all his cattle and replacing them 
with new and healthy ones from parents and places where the dis- 
ease was not known to exist. My advice was appreciated by the 
owner calling in a quack to take my place. 

Case II. — On another farm were kept from twenty-four to 
twenty-six head of cattle. In 1864 the owner bought a calf to bring 
up, the mother of which died a few years later from tuberculosis. 



70 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

This calf developed very poorly for the first two years of its life ; 
its neck and head were small and long, and its bones very small, so 
that the whole habitus of the animal was cachectic. This animal was 
killed in the fall of 1869. In the course of the winter of 1869-'70 
many of the cattle began to cough, and among them two, " A " and 
" B," so severely that my services were requested. 

I found all the animals in an apparently healthy condition ; only 
the two, A and B, were noticed to cough. By auscultation, I found 
in A a peculiarly marked bronchial respiration in portions of the 
left lung. At this time I knew nothing of the breeding, or the 
phenomena seen in the above-mentioned calf, which had been 
slaughtered. During this winter and the succeeding summer the 
two cattle, A and B, besides others, continued to congh. All the 
animals on the farm coughed during the winter of 1870-'71, except 
the yearlings and some calves which were kept in another stable. 
In the spring of 1871 the two cows, A and B, began to emaciate so 
much that it was considered advisable to kill them. The autopsy 
revealed the general characteristics of tubercular pneumonia, and 
tuberculosis of other organs. Basing my opinions upon the pre- 
viously mentioned experience, I made no hesitation in pronouncing 
all the cattle in this stable that coughed as afflicted with tuberculo- 
sis, and advised the owner to gradually get rid of them all. On ac- 
count of economical reasons, this was easier said than done, and the 
owner has never since been free from this disease among his cattle. 

During the period from 1 864-' 71, tuberculosis has been always 
present among the cattle of this owner, who has lost nineteen head 
from the disease in that time. 

The author gives four other illustrations of similar extension of 
tuberculosis among cattle upon other farms, and closes his remarks 
with the following interesting case : 

The milk from one of these cows had been used for some time 
in a cooked condition, but the condition of the cow finally became 
so bad it was decided to give the milk to the hogs, but uncooked. 

From May of the same year, the farmer's wife noticed that the 
young pigs (four or five months old) fed upon this milk did not ap- 
pear to thrive well, and as, in the course of a few weeks three died, 
I was requested to make an examination of the last one. I found 
the same much emaciated. I found a tuberculous peritonitis with 
effusion in the cavity of that organ. The lungs and bronchial glands 
were normal; the mesenteric glands enlarged — on section of the 
same, found them filled with a tuberculous mass ; tubercles in the 
liver. In the course of a few weeks the two remaining pigs of the 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 71 

litter also died. I found tuberculosis in one of them, and the owner 
told me that the other, and another of an older litter which was 
with them, and fed on the same milk, were also found tuberculous 
on being examined. 

Unfortunately, in this country, there are not at present any sta- 
tistics with reference to the extension which this disease has attained 
among our cattle, and the same is almost true with reference to other 
lands. The following meager statistics may not, however, be with- 
out interest to the reader : 

Statistics with reference to Tuberculosis among Bavarian 
Cattle for the Year 1877. 

Tuberculous. 

Males 869. Females 4,107. 

1-62 to the 1,000. 

64 under one year, or 1*31 per cent. 

528 from one to three years, or 10 - 81 " 

1,846 from three to six years, or 37 - 80 " 

2,445 over six years, or 50'07 " 

Goring, " Zeitschrift fur Thierheilkunde," 4, 286. 

From January 1 to December 31, 1874, were killed at Augsburg, 
Bavaria, 11,331 cattle (calves excluded) ; of these 134 were tubercu- 
lous, 1*18 per cent ; 42 males (13 bulls and 29 steers); 92 females. 
Of the whole number slaughtered, about one third were males and 
two thirds females. 

For the year 1876 were killed 13,241 cattle and 25,909 calves. 
Of these, 250 were found tuberculous ; viz., 243 cattle over one 
year old, one calf three weeks old. 

The percentage for 1876 was 1-84 ; for 1875, 1-40 ; for 1874, 
1-18 ; for 1873, 1-02 ; for 1872, 1-27. For 1876, 75 males and 168 
females. Of the males, 39 were castrated and 36 were not. 

Statistics of Diseases found among Animals slaughtered at 
Munich in 1874. 

"Whole number slaughtered at the public shambles : 

r .., S Oxen 231 

cattle ^ 0ows and steerg 52Q0 

Calves 4,201 

Sheep , 1,563 

Swine 303 

Of the frequent diseases were observed : 



72 THE DISEASES OE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Pulmonary tuberculosis in one goat and 235 cattle. 

Perlsucht, or tuberculosis of the serosse 197 " 

Tuberculosis of the liver 29 " 

Tuberculosis of the udder 1 " 

Tuberculosis of the bones 2 " 

Abscess in the lungs , 45 " 

Pleuro-pneumonia 20 " 

Echinococcus of the lungs 44 " 

Echinococcus of the liver 10 " 

Induration of the liver 264 " 

Distoma hepaticum 219 " 

Icterus 20 calves. 

Nephritis, suppurative 12 cattle. 

Abscess in udder and mastitis 8 " 

Scabies 242 sheep. 

Osteomalacia 9 cattle. 

Measles 4 swine. 

Slunk veal 57 calves. 

Nauseous appearance of flesh in one swine and 25 " 

"Department veterinarian Pauli reports* that 12,585 kilo- 
grammes of flesh were officially destroyed at the investigation sta- 
tions in Berlin from 1877 to 1878. Further, 1,646 cattle, 2,027 
swine, 235 calves, and 714 sheep, were killed in the police slaughter- 
house to determine their hygienic condition. Of these, 213 cattle, 
643 swine, 196 calves, and 382 sheep were found unfit for food. Of 
the 213 cattle, 49 suffered from general 'tuberculosis and initial 
emaciation,' 46 'from general tuberculosis and cachexia,' and 22 
'from tuberculosis, general hydrops, and cachexia,' and 85 swine 
were found measly. In 998 cattle, 1,466 swine, 8 calves, and 107 
sheep were found single diseased organs, which forbade using the 
flesh for human food." 

There is no subject more urgently requiring the attention of 
boards of health and the people than this. 

However important trichiniasis may be, this far exceeds it. The 
few experiments which have been made should be repeated by hun- 
dreds — yes, thousands, if necessary — by carefully selected men, and 
at the expense of the State, until this question is forever settled pro 
or con. 

While this is being done, competent veterinarians (not empirics) 
should be engaged by the respective State boards of health to gather 
reliable statistics with reference to the extension of tuberculosis 
among the cattle of each State. 

It would be well that the National Board of Health instigate the 
work. 

* "Mittheil. aus d. Thierarzt. Praxis," 1877-78, p. 99. 



DISEASES OF CATTLE. 73 

As the statistical results of the experiments which have been 
made unquestionably go to prove that such milk does contain ele- 
ments of a specifically infectious character, there is no question that 
laws should he made, and executed also, so as to prevent the sale of 
such milk for human consumption, either for itself or mixed with 
other milk, in no matter how small quantities. 

No such milk should be sold ; but such cows should be strictly- 
isolated and fattened, or condemned. 

This question of the specific infection of milk from tuberculous 
cows is no trifling matter ; on the contrary, it is one of life and 
death. How many thousand babies are yearly brought up on the 
bottle with cow's milk ! 

All the fond parents ask is, that the milk is from one cow. This 
guaranteed, they appear to feel perfectly satisfied. ~No one seems 
yet to have thought that a trustworthy and expert guarantee of the 
hygienic condition of the cow giving the milk was necessary. We 
make great demands, and get terribly excited about the purity of 
our water-supply. We spend millions of dollars to keep the foun- 
tains pure, and to prevent all foreign admixtures on its passage to 
us. Is it not as much our duty to examine into the purity of the 
fountains from which comes our milk-supply ? 

We can not but repeat our assertion that every State board of 
health should be liberally supplied with funds to be used exclusively 
for experimental purposes, and in every State there should be a 
station for such purposes. 

I do not know that it has ever yet been proved by direct experi- 
ment how much dilution it is possible to give to milk by means of 
unduly watery food given to the cow, or how much the milk can be 
concentrated, in one and the same cow, by systematically lessen- 
ing the quantity of fluid given consistent with the health of the 
animal. 

The first form of feeding might be well called dilution of 
milk within the law, while when the water is added after milking 
we have dilution under penalty of, or without, the law. 

Both forms of dilution are equally a swindle upon the con- 
sumer. 

An economy which does not recognize the absolute necessity of 
such experiments as the above is of the "penny-wise but pound- 
foolish variety," and never in the true interests of the public. 



74 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

INFECTION. 
Anthrax {Carbuncle). 

Anthrax is the disease of all the diseases strictly due to germ-life 
which is best understood by scientists. Before considering it, how- 
ever, we desire to introduce some general remarks, and then to con- 
sider the subject of germ-infection, though in a very general manner. 

The word infectio means to pollute. 

The subject of infection is one of the most theoretic connected 
with the study of medicine. 

To theorize does not mean to dream of things possible, as the 
major part of the people and too many professionals seem to think. 
To be called a theorist, if one is in reality such, is by no means a 
disgrace ; on the contrary, it is the highest honor that can be given. 
It means, truly, that one is a man capable of reasoning, both by in- 
duction and deduction. To be called a practical man means that 
you know nothing but routine practice, or what one has inherited 
from teachers and fathers, and that we are incapable of reasoning. 
Theory is the connecting link, the hypothetical bridge of explanation 
between two known facts. 

These facts are, first, that something takes place; second, the 
phenomena by which you recognize that something has taken place. 
The empiric is satisfied with this knowledge. It is enough for him 
that a horse has colic, and that certain symptoms indicate it, and 
that in general a dose of a certain medicine will cure it. This is 
being practical. 

To theorize means to be able to think, and to think logically and 
well — to be able to trace the connection between cause and effect. 
If there is any disgrace in this, then those who are called theorists 
are generally in most honorable company. 

The trouble with our profession is and has been that it has never 
yet produced a great thinker. Not one of the men whose names 
you have been taught to revere as great among veterinarians have 
ever been great thinkers. Even human medicine has been noto- 
riously wanting in this regard. 

Good thinkers are scarce at best. The Bacons, Goethes, Des- 
cartes, Humes, and Franklins of this world are always phenomenal. 
The great practitioners have been numerous ; the great thinkers in 
medicine can be counted upon the fingers of one hand. They are 
the men who have shaped the course of medicine for years after 
their death, and frequently during their lives. 



INFECTION. 75 

Has veterinary medicine ever produced a Bichat or a Yirchow ? 
When it does, it will stand scientifically on a level with human medi- 
cine, and not till then ; for then it will for a time give the direction 
to all medical research and thought. Good theorists are ever prac- 
tical in the best sense of the word ; for practical does not always 
mean a knowledge of therapeutics alone, as many teach. An erro- 
neous theory, ably defended, is of more benefit to the world than 
a true one which lacks earnest defenders or combaters. It stirs men 
up, and leads to the discovery of the truth. 

Darwinism has been the greatest blessing to natural science that 
the nineteenth century has produced, even though all its premises 
should finally be proved incorrect. You have only to think of the 
immense increase of our knowledge of the lower forms of life, of 
the physiological functions of both lower and higher animals, to re- 
alize this. 

Some of our very best veterinarians are getting by far too con- 
ceited, and this conceit is unfortunately becoming inoculated into 
the rising generation. 

There is no such thing in existence as veterinary science. 

"We speak of veterinary pathologists, when in reality we have 
never had a single one. Pathologists and pathological anatomists 
are entirely different things, though occasionally united in one 
person. 

Bichat and Yirchow were pathologists, because they were good 
thinkers. Pathology is the philosophy of disease. They were or 
are pathological anatomists, because they could correctly read, that 
is, describe the results of disease. Prom these results they theo- 
rized ; that is, from facts they thought ; that is, they tried to tell us 
how the results took place, for no man has yet seen the processes of 
disease. 

What we see upon the dissection-table, or under the microscope, 
is not the processes of disease, but the results. 

If we are practical in the world's sense, these results will be of 
no value to us ; if we are theorists, they may be very instructive, 
and we can become truly practical. 

I have said that Yirchow and Bichat were pathologists, and that 
veterinary medicine had never produced a pathologist. 

This is a fact, contradict it who may. But if we have not pro- 
duced pathologists, we have pathological anatomists, some say. 

Again I say, all wrong. A pathological anatomist is a man who 
correctly describes the results of disease, of which Rokitansky is a 
striking example. 



76 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Have we produced such a man ? Do our text-books tell us much 
of the results of disease in our animals ? Some may quote to me the 
names of Gerhch, Roell, Williams, Leisering, Bouley, Chauveau, 
Toussaint, and others, not one of whom deserves to be named with 
a Rokitansky, a Virchow, or a Bichat. 

They have done some good experimental work, in a very limited 
field, and, like one solitary star shining out from a dark and clouded 
heaven, loom up all too conspicuously — thankful, as we are, that 
they have done something to make veterinary medicine worthy of 
notice. But where is our pathological anatomy % What is Roell, 
the best of German works on special pathology % Has it any original 
pathological anatomy ? It is Rokitansky from beginning to end ; 
that is, human results transferred, without criticism, to animal con- 
ditions. Bruckmiiller's " Pathological Zootomy," the only work on 
pathological anatomy of our animals, is another abortion, born too 
early to have anything in it but adapted Eokitansky ism. 

What do we know about the microscopic pathological anatomy 
of the brain, the kidneys, or any single organ of our animals ? The 
macroscopical conditions are fairly described ; the microscopical have 
been scarcely thought of, but borrowed from human medicine. 

Have we a single contagious disease, the pathological conditions 
of which have been carefully studied and described by veterinari- 
ans ? No ! 

Do we know the pathological condition of the lungs, in direct 
progress from beginning to end, in pleuro-pneumonia ? 

Are our methods of investigation, urine analysis, microscopic 
technic and examination, any of them, the result of veterinary gen- 
ius ? No — all, all borrowed ! 

Then why speak of veterinary science ? These things are not 
written to discourage, but rather to stimulate, for I, for one, believe 
the day will come when veterinary medicine will have its patholo- 
gists who shall give the key-note to medical thought, and veterinary 
pathological anatomists equal to any that human medicine has had, 
or will ever produce. 

In that day we shall not grope in darkness, but shall see things 
as they really are. We must learn to observe well, and, above all, 
to think well, and next to that to be able to express ourselves well. 
Medicine has its language, and the exact and logical use of language 
is the best characteristic of an educated man. 

I will illustrate my meaning by a few of the incongruities of 
medical literature. We frequently read of collapsed conditions 
of the lungs, by which is meant the dark-blue, airless spots which 



INFECTION. 77 

lie somewhat beneath the general level of the pleura. This is real- 
ity atelectasis pulmonum, that is, airless. The structural changes of 
the lung by which this condition and true collapse are produced 
are absolutely different. In atelectasis we have a shutting off of the 
supply of air, a gradual absorption of that which was present, and 
a consequent retraction of the pulmonary tissue, by which the blood- 
vessels come nearer together ; a non-oxidation of the blood in the 
same, hence the darker color ; hut the lung-tissue retracts, it retains 
its elasticity. In collajpsus jpuhnonum the lung-tissue has lost its 
elasticity, an entirely different condition. Such a lung has lost all 
the springy characteristics of normal lung-tissue ; it is dead, doughy to 
the touch, which is never the case in atelectasis. Again, clinicians 
speak of hepatization, instead of solidification or infiltration of the 
lung. Hepatization means, indeed, solidified (liver-like), hut only to 
the touch. The observation and language of the dissection-table have 
been transferred to the bedside, where they do not belong. Each 
place has its appropriate language. 

We speak of apoplexia cerebri, as if there were no other form of 
apoplexy, whereas the word means to strike down, to cease acting 
suddenly; hence we may also have apoplexia cordis, pulmonum, 
laryngia, medulla oblongata, all organs the continual action of 
which, or of parts of them, are absolutely necessary to the continu- 
ance of life. We here again mix up cause and effect. Apoplexy 
is the cessation of function, not the cause. The hsemorrhages in 
the brain are that and nothing more ; but because in some cases 
apoplexy accompanies them, they are not always apoplectic centers. 
The part complicated, or the amount extravasated, causes the clinical 
expression apoplexy. 

While these things have, as it were, become sanctified by usage, 
they are not in accordance with the logical use of language. 

Concussion of the brain, by which life ceases, may be supposed 
to take place without haemorrhage, yet is essentially apoplexia cere- 
bri, though we never hear it spoken of as such. 

With reference to some of the infectious, or, better, contagious 
diseases, we find medical writers falling into the same error when 
they speak of the elements by which the disease is transmitted to 
human beings as "animal poisons." There are animal poisons, 
such as come from reptiles ; but the infectious elements of the con- 
tagious diseases are not, logically speaking, poisons. 

A poison is something which in well-defined quantities causes 
specific effects. Unless this quantity of a given poison is intro- 
duced into the system, this effect does not follow. 



78 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

In contagious diseases the quantity necessary to infection can 
not be measured. The elements of infection in contagious disease 
multiply within the organisms into which they are introduced. 
Poisons do not thus multiply of themselves. 

The quantity of poison remains the same, unless a second intro- 
duction takes place. 

Infectious or contagious diseases have their period of incuba- 
tion — that is, a period elapses before the infected organism shows to 
us that anything has taken place. Even in inoculation the action is 
not immediately visible. In some diseases, as rabies, this period may 
extend over weeks or months, while in others only a few days elapse. 

By poisons the action is immediate, provided the quantity intro- 
duced is sufficient. 

Infectious diseases have their cycles, or stages. They have the 
above period of incubation, their period of full development, and 
that of reconvalescence, their " stadium accrementi and decrementi," 
while poisons have no such course. 

The diseases which are known as contagious, or infectious, do 
not by any means belong to a single class or group. 

We have the group of acute exanthemata, such as the variolse, 
measles, scarlatina, certain forms of ■ mange, the foot-and-mouth dis- 
ease, the maladie du coit, and the pustulous eruption upon the genitals 
of our domestic animals. These diseases are frequently accompanied 
by catarrhal conditions of the respiratory or digestive tracts, with 
cerebral, hepatic, or splenic disturbances ; but these latter do not 
constitute the essentials of the disease. They are also generally ac- 
companied by fever, which of itself is nothing specific, fever being 
a general phenomenon accompanying all serious constitutional dis- 
turbances. 

There is no such thing as specific fevers. Of specific causes 
there are many. 

We have also a group of infectious diseases known as the acute 
intestinal, that tract being the chief seat of the same, though, as 
with the above, other parts or organs do not escape complication. 
Such are abdominal typhus, cholera, dysentery, and rinderpest. 

Then we have those of the respiratory tract, the influenzas — a 
collective name — pharyngitis et laryngitis diphtheritica, tussis con- 
vulsiva, pleuro-pneumonia, and the malarial influenza, or pneumo- 
pleuro-enteritis of the horse. Also the group of septic diseases, 
which embraces those classed under the general names of septicae- 
mia or pyaemia, erysipelas, gangrena septica, phlegmonia, puerperal 
fever, etc. 



INFECTION. 79 

Another group embraces the so-called essential or malarial fevers, 
such as febris recurrens, flava, and the Texas cattle-fever; and, 
finally, the zoonoses, or contagio-infectious animal diseases, rabies, 
glanders, anthrax, as well as those peculiar to one species or an- 
other, as syphilis of man. 

After these general remarks we will now consider what are at 
present looked upon as the elements of infection, in one form or 
another, of all these different groups — viz. : 

The Bacteria. 

What are bacteria ? 

" Cells deprived of chlorophyl, of globular, oblong, or cylindrical 
form, sometimes sinuous and twisted, reproducing themselves exclu- 
sively by transverse division, scissiparity, also by spores, bacillus 
subtilis, living isolated or in groups, and having affinities to the algae." 

Owing to their microscopic minuteness, it is not to be wondered 
at that most varying views have been held as to their real nature 
and place among living things. 

That they constitute veritably a contagium vivum, that is, are 
living things, there is at present no doubt, various as have been the 
opinions as to what the true meaning of such a term should be. 

A living contagium is such by which the infectious elements 
have the principal characteristics of life ; that is, they live and die, 
and are capable of reproducing themselves : whether the reproduc- 
tion takes places within or without the animal organism is non- 
essential to our definition. 

Even very ancient writers seem to have arrived at some vague 
idea of the existence of a contagium vivum. We find the same in 
the writings of the Roman fathers of agricultural and veterinary 
literature of the fourth century, A. D. Varo and Columella, who 
asserted that many malarial fevers were caused by the penetration 
of lower organisms into the body. Even before the discovery of 
the microscope, animal organisms were supposed to have an etio- 
logical connection with the pest. 

Leeuwenhoek, the father of microscopy, is said to have been the 
first observer who described anything like true bacteria. This oc- 
curred in 1675, while examining some water, in which he describes 
minute globules as crossing the objective field. The following year 
he recognized similar objects in faeces, and the tartar from the teeth, 
and gives such descriptions that we are warranted in assuming that 
they were bacteria, vibrios, and leptothrix. 

An author of the seventeenth century attributed the epizootics 



80 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

which prevailed at that time to the action of some sort of grass- 
hopper or locust, and recommended that the inhabitants make large 
fires to drive away or kill them, in order to prevent the diseases. 

Later, we find various absurd ideas being supported, and cholera, 
variola, syphilitic and other animals described by authors as being 
the specific cause of such diseases. 

Such absurdities led to the ridicule of the idea of living infec- 
tious elements, which found its counterpart in the idea of infectious 
gases, a theory which has been of late abandoned, owing to the 
great advances in microscopy and the technicalities of scientific re- 
search during the last ten years. 

The Classification of Bacteria. 

As early as 1773 O. F. Miiller made an attempt to classify these 
objects ; others followed, among them the noted German natural- 
ist Ehrenberg in 1838, and the Frenchmen Dujardin (1841) and 
Davaine. 

Ehrenberg speaks of — 

1. Bacteria, as filaments linear and inflexible, and gives three 
species. 

2. Yibrios : filaments linear, flexible ; nine species. 

3. Spirillum : filaments spiral, inflexible ; three species. 

4. Spirochete : filaments spiral, flexible ; one species. 
Dujardin (1841) classed them as — 

1. Bacterium : filaments rigid, with vacillating movement. 

2. Vibrio : filaments flexible, with undulatory movement. 

3. Spirillum ; filaments spiral, with rotary movement. 

Up to this time the bacteria had been looked upon as animals, 
and placed at the foot of that kingdom. Later, the idea that they be- 
longed to the vegetable kingdom has been gradually gaining ground, 
and is at present almost universally accepted ; although the renowned 
German naturalist Haeckel places them in his intermediate class or 
kingdom of protista. Davaine (1859) was the first to clearly demon- 
strate the vegetable nature of the vibrios, and their near relation to 
the algae. 

Davaine's classification was as follows : Filaments straight or 
bent, but not spiral, moving spontaneously. When rigid, bacterium ; 
when flexible, vibrio ; when motionless, bacteridium ; when the fila- 
ments were spiral, spirillum. 

From this time on we find the study of these objects assuming a 
new and more exact character, thanks to the work of Pasteur, Da- 
vaine, Haller, Cohn, Koch, and others. 



INFECTION. gj 

The absence of chlorophyl distinguishes them from the algse, and 
places them among the fungi ; a view which is supported by nearly 
all the best botanists of our day. The generally accepted classifica- 
tion is at present that of Cohn, and is — 

1. Spherobacteria, or globular bacteria. 

2. Micro or rod bacteria. 

3. Desmo or filamentous bacteria. 

4. Spiro or spiral bacteria. 

In 1874 Billroth, the noted surgeon and author on surgical pa- 
thology, published a large work upon disease-germs — viz., upon 
coccobacteria septica — and arrived at very different conclusions from 
those of Cohn, which have not, however, gained any general accept- 
ance. Billroth claims that there is but one single original species 
of bacteria, and that all others are derived from it, viz., coccobacteria 
septica. This vegetable organism may present itself in two forms : 
the globular coccus, and that of rods, bacteria. These two forms 
may reproduce by elongation and transverse division, or may pass 
from one to the other. 

According to the variation in size, Billroth speaks of micrococcus, 
microbacteria ; mesococcus, mesobacteria ; megacoccus, megabacte- 
ria. And, according to their relations to one another, as mono- 
coccus, monobacteria ; diplococcus (in pairs), diplobacteria ; strepto- 
coccus (in chains), streptobacteria ; gliococcus, gliobacteria ; petalo- 
coccus (foot or base), petalobacteria. 

"We have said that the most generally accepted classification was 
that of Cohn, but, before considering it more particularly, we feel 
obliged to notice that of another noted German author, which is 
based upon the action of these germs. 

Nageli speaks — 

1. Of mucorini, or mold-fungi. 

2. Saccharomycetes, or budding fungi, which produce the fer- 
mentation of wine, beer, yeast, etc. 

3. Schizomycetes, or fission-fungi, which produce putrefactive 
processes. This group embraces the micrococci and bacteria. 

I. Spherobacteria. — Spherical bacteria are defined by their 
name. They are round or oval bodies of very small size. They are 
sometimes found isolated, often appearing in pairs — diplococcus ; or 
again we meet with them in the form of chains, or articulations — 
streptococcus ; or united together by a sort of homogeneous material 
— zoogleaform. When in this condition they are young and in pro- 
cess of active proliferation. Sometimes they form a coating upon 
the surface of liquids. When we speak of a mycoderma, they have 

6 



82 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

no independent movements, but simply display the well-known mo- 
lecular trepidation. 

The function of spherical bacteria has been determined to be 
zymotic ; that is, ferment-producing. According to Cohn, they do 
not take part in the production of putrefying processes. 

While the above includes a distinct form of germ-life, there is 
no question that the spores of some other forms of germ-life, viz., 
bacillus, give no distinguishing means by which to separate them 
from spherobacteria, except the results of experimental cultivation ; 
as the Bible says of men, " By their fruits shall ye know them." 

There is but one genus of the spherobacteria, viz., " micrococcus." 
They are described as cells, colorless or scarcely colored, very small, 
globular or oval, forming by transverse division, filaments of two or 
several articulations in the form of a chaplet, or united in numerous 
cellular families, or in glutinous masses, all motionless. This genus 
is divided into three groups : 

Micrococcus chromogenes. 

Micrococcus zymogenes. 

Micrococcus pathogenes. 

The first groups are again distinguished as to the solubility or 
insolubility of the coloring-matter, and are found upon vegetables, 
milk, etc. 

The second group contains but one variety of special interest to 
us, viz., M. urece, found in urine, where it transforms the urea into 
carbonate of ammonia (Pasteur). 

The pathogenetic micrococci are of so much more importance 
that we must give them particular attention. 

They are spherical bacteria, which are found in affections of a 
contagio-infectious nature, such as M. vaccinae, being very small, 
appearing isolated or in pairs in recent vaccine virus, and in the 
pus of variola-pustules. They are looked upon as the active prin- 
ciple of vaccine virus. 

M. diphtheriticus. — Granular ovoid cells, isolated, or more fre- 
quently united in pairs, or in a chaplet of four to six cells, some- 
times multiplying in colonies, and extending themselves in all the 
complicated tissues, decomposing and destroying them. 

M. septicus. — Little iround, motionless cells, crowded in masses 
or united in chaplets ; found in the secretions of wounds in cases of 
septicaemia, as zooglaea in callous ulcers, as isolated cells, united in 
pairs, or chaplets, in the serum of epidemic puerperal fever, and 
in all tissues, vessels, etc., in pyaemia and septicaemia. 

Many others have been found and given specific names, espe- 



INFECTION. 83 

cially by Hallier, Zurn, etc., as in scarlatina, epidemic diarrhoea, 
typhus, glanders, rinderpest, syphilis, gonorrhoea. 

II. The Second Group of Cohn, the Mickobacteria. — We have 
here the single genus bacterium. Cells cylindrical or elliptical, 
free, or united in pairs during their division, rarely in fours, never 
in chains, sometimes in zooglsea, having spontaneous movement, os- 
cillatory and very active, especially in media rich in alimentary 
material and in the presence of oxygen. 

As with the spherobacteria, -we might divide the rod-bacteria 
into three groups: first, those of putrefaction, B. termo, lineola / 
second, those of lactic acetic fermentation ; third, the pigment-bac- 
teria of colored milk and pus. 

B. termo is the most common of all varieties. They are cylin- 
drical cells, slightly swollen in the middle, isolated, sometimes united 
in pairs, two to five times as long as wide. Movements oscillatory. 

They can easily be produced in all infusions of animal and vege- 
table substances. This bacterium is said to have cilia or hair-like 
projections from each end of the rod. 

It is the veritable agent and first cause of putrefaction, and 
hence is to be found in all cadavers where this process has com- 
menced. 

B. lineola is larger and found in various animal and vegetable 
infusions, but is not definitely known to cause a specific fermenta- 
tion. 

The other forms of lactic and acetic fermentation are not of es- 
pecial pathogenetic interest. 

III. Desmobacteria. — This group of Cohn's is of especial inter- 
est, as it contains the specific germ of anthrax, that germ upon which 
the germ-infection theory of disease largely depends for support. 

They are filiform bacteria, composed of elongated articulations, 
isolated, or in chains more or less extended, and resulting from trans- 
verse division. (In this form they correspond to leptothrix, but 
differ from torula in that the filaments are not constricted at the 
point of articulation.) They may be motionless or not, dependent 
upon the presence or absence of oxygen, the reaction of the medium 
which contains them, and other unknown conditions. Some forms 
never exhibit movement. 

We have here but one germ to consider — bacillus. 

The bacilli are characterized as slender filaments, straight, short, 
or of moderate length, rigid or flexible, and as being with and with- 
out movement. One species is a pigment bacteria. 

Bacillus subtilis. — Yery slender elongated filaments formed of a 



§4 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

single cell, or of two, three, or more segments. Thickness un- 
measurable ; well-defined flexible movement of an active or passive 
character. Keproduction is by fission and by globular or oval 
spores, which develop in the interior of the articulations. They 
are to be found in stagnant waters. 

This bacillus plays an important part in butyric fermentation. 
It exists in rennet, and can support a temperature of 105° C. and 
live in a medium deprived of pure oxygen, in which case it takes a 
peculiar form and contains persistent spores which when set free 
give rise to other rods. 

Bacillus anthracis is a species very similar to the preceding, but 
generally longer, and always motionless ; length four, twelve, and 
even fifty micrometers ; thickness scarcely measurable. 

Bacillus anthracis is developed in charbon — carbuncle — of cattle, 
man, sheep, horse, rabbit, rat, etc. ; never in dogs, the cat, birds, and 
cold-blooded animals. It is found, above all, in the capillary vessels. 
When cultivated in suitable media, such as the aqueous humor of 
the eye of the ox, and the different cultivation fluids, this bacillus 
develops spores in the interior of its segments which may germinate 
and develop rods. 

The other bacilli of this group are without any special interest. 

The only form of special interest is the " spirochseton hermeieri," 
found in the blood of persons suffering from recurrent fever (chills 
and fever), but only during the access, never during the intermis- 
sions of the disease. 

Distinction of Bacteria from Inorganic Substances. 

No one has ever questioned the living nature of bacteria, except 
with reference to the most invisible varieties. These smaller forms 
may be often confounded with various matters, such as organic par- 
ticles, molecular granules, fat-globules, or fatty detritus. To distin- 
guish them from micrococci is almost impossible, unless the greatest 
circumspection is taken by the observer. 

' The detritus, or the amorphous powder, or precipitated mole- 
cules, of inorganic substances, though they equally well exhibit the 
noted Brownian movement, are to be distinguished from micrococci 
by such optical signs as their angular or irregular form, their lesser 
refraction, and their action toward certain chemical agents. 

The case is quite different if the molecules are of an organic 
nature. They enjoy, in common with micrococci, a round form, 
movement, and refraction. However, their form is wanting in the 
regularity proper to germs ; they vary in color, and their refractive 



INFECTION. 85 

power is always less. Warming the slides, the action of ether and 
other known reagents will enable one to distinguish them. 

The most difficult of all objects to distinguish from micrococci 
are fat-globules, or so-called fatty detritus. The difference in refrac- 
tion is very small, and in mucilaginous solutions the action of re- 
agents is not always to be depended upon. Cultivation is the only 
secure course to employ in cases of grave doubt. 

Only such globules as have the power of multiplication are vital 
bodies : when this does not take place, we may assure ourselves that 
we are having to do with some form of pseudobacteria. 

Nageli says there are but three diagnostic signs by which we 
are enabled to recognize, to any degree of certainty, that molecules 
under our observation are organisms — spontaneous movement, pro- 
liferation, and equality in dimensions, united with regularity of 
form. 

The most certain characteristic is movement in a straight or 
curved line — a phenomenon never to be seen in inorganic mole- 
cules. 

Multiplication is a character of less importance, because of the 
liability to adhesion of inorganic or other molecules. Granules, of 
varying size and of a more or less irregular form, ought not to be 
considered as belonging to the segmented fungi. 

As to chemical reagents, concentrated acetic acid, which causes 
all animal tissues to clarify, is without influence on bacteria. Many 
coloring-stuffs used in microscopic technics are of assistance in diag- 
nosing bacteria ; among the best of these are hamatoxylin, fuch- 
sine, and Bismarck brown. 

The Development of Bacteria. 

Of all living organisms known to natural science the bacteria 
are the most widely dispersed : they may, in fact, be said to be 
everywhere — in the air, water, upon and in solid animal and vege- 
table bodies. 

Origin. — The origin of all inferior organisms has ever been a 
question open to most variable and vital discussion ; but, in general, 
three ways have been assumed for this most important function : 

1. By heterogenesis ; that is, by direct production from mineral 
or organic substances (spontaneous generation). 

2. On the rule that " like begets like " it has been asserted that 
all bacteria must come from others of the same kind, by one of the 
recognized forms of generation : fission, spores, etc. 

3. Others assume that, while they derive their origin from 



86 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

organisms already in existence, they represent nothing more than 
different stages or forms of development of known species. This 
latter hypothesis is known as polymorphism. 

The Dissemination of Bacteria est Different Media — Air and 

Water. 

The experiments of Pasteur, Tyndal], and others, have clearly 
demonstrated the presence of vegetable germs in the air which has 
been allowed to pass through apertures into vessels prepared for the 
purpose. These germs generally have the micrococcus or microbe 
form, and are present in lesser numbers in winter than in summer 
and fall, which fact finds its explanation in the greater degree of 
vegetable decomposition and telluric evaporation which takes place 
during the warm months in comparison with the cold. 

The experiments of Cohn and others have demonstrated that the 
atmosphere contains very few adult bacteria ; in fact, they are rarely 
found therein in a complete state, but rather as bright, refracting 
points, very difficult if not impossible to distinguish from one another. 
These points probably represent the latent or permanent spore-con- 
dition of bacterium life, capable of generating into true bacteria 
under favorable conditions. These spores may form the point from 
which epidemics take their origin, and in this condition are capable 
of wide dispersion. 

Nutrition and Respiration of Bacteria. 

As bacteria have some of the essential characteristics of organ- 
ized beings — a cell-membrane and protoplasmic contents — they must 
naturally receive nourishment and respire in the same way as all 
colorless vegetables and inferior animals which have no special 
apparatus for such purposes ; that is, by endosmotic absorption. 

It matters not in what medium they may be met with, they re- 
quire — in order to live — water, nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen, as well 
as certain salts from the mineral world, which enter in very minute 
quantities into their organism. 

"Water is indispensable to the activity and development of bac- 
teria. Desiccation, drying out, completely arrests the movement of 
those that are mobile, and the functional activity of all bacteria. 
Desiccation does not, however, kill them, unless it is too prolonged, 
as is proved by the activity retained by the various kinds of virus 
used for inoculation. In the condition of permanent spores they 
retain their vitality a long while. It is a surprising fact that the 
great chemical difference existing between salt and fresh water 



INFECTION. 87 

appears to exert little or no influence upon the development of bac- 
teria. 

Nitkogen. — The experiments of Pasteur have demonstrated that 
an albuminoid nitrogenous substance is not necessary to the life of 
bacteria, but that other nitrogenous substances, as ammonia, will 
answer the same purposes. 

Pasteur's cultivating solution is as follows : 

Distilled water 100 parts. 

Sugar-candy 10 " 

Tartrate of ammonia 1 " 

Ashes of one gramme of yeast - 075. 

Cohn's fluid is designed to counteract the development of mold 
due to the cane-sugar in the above solution, and is as follows : 

Distilled water 100 parts. 

Tartrate of ammonia 1 " 

Ashes of yeast 1 " 

Mayer gives us another fluid which does, away with the ashes of 
yeast, viz. : 

Phosphate of potash 0-1 gramme. 

Sulphate of magnesia 0*1 " 

Tribasic phosphate of lime - l " 

Distilled water 20 c. c. 

Carbon. — Aside from other sources, bacteria can obtain this im- 
portant element to their life from organic acids. 

Oxygen. — Numerous controversies have taken place among sa- 
vants as to the role this element plays in bacterial life. 

It seems, a priori, that, like other living things, oxygen must be 
necessary to germ-life. Pasteur has demonstrated that it is not so, 
however, with all forms of bacteria. In putrefying processes he has 
demonstrated that, after certain species have developed B. ter?no, 
which depend upon the presence of oxygen, and come to the surface, 
forming a coating upon it, the fluid beneath is free from this gas, 
and yet other forms of bacteria come to development in it. 

The first of these organisms — that is, those dependent on oxygen 
for life — he has styled aerobic fungi, and the others anaerobic. 
Other observers do not agree with this theory. Hoffmann, a very 
able German savant, says : " These little beings can not live without 
air — that is, without oxygen. If this gas is wanting, they cease to 
move and to proliferate. If a drop of liquid full of bacteria is 



88 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

placed upon a glass slide and covered, the active bacteria will all 
gradually approach the margin of the cover, and at the end of sev- 
eral days will be found alive, while those situated toward the center 
will be dead." 

Toussaint, the ablest veterinary student of this subject, has re- 
cently published the following results with reference to B. anthracis : 

" The bacteria which occupy the central portion of Ranvier's 
moist chamber, and which by reason of their situation receive rerj 
little oxygen from the groove, are soon arrested in their develop- 
ment, while those which occupy the borders are long and collect in 
immense numbers. Those in the center remain small, formed of 
two, four, or five articulations, which are easily separated. They 
soon cease to grow, and are not transformed into spores." 

Cohn, an unquestionable authority, also says that "the com- 
plete development of bacillus, and, above all, the generation of 
spores, only take place under the free access of air." 

Reproduction of Bacteria. 

We have already mentioned that bacteria reproduce either by 
scissiparity — fission — or by the endogenous production of spores, 
which are again capable of developing into bacteria. We have 
also frequently mentioned that these spores are so wanting in 
specific characteristics that it is impossible to assert whether each 
variety of bacteria has its own specific spore or germinal form, 
although this theory is mostly supported ; while able authors also 
hold to a metagenetic theory— that is, that a metamorphosis be- 
tween the different forms of fungi is possible, the same being due 
to the influence of the different media in which they may be culti- 
vated or live. 

"When proliferation takes place by fission, or transverse division 
of the cell, we see the cell gradually yet rapidly increases in length, 
the protoplasma in the middle becoming clearer, and a partition 
forms in the middle of the cell, separating the protoplasma into two 
distinct portions. The partition is at first very delicate, but soon 
thickens, and the cell divides in two. 

This phenomenon takes place more or less rapidly, dependent 
upon the richness in nutritive material of the media in which it is, 
on the temperature, moisture, etc. 

In some cases a constriction takes place in the middle of the 
cell, the two ends having a figure-8 or bulb-like form. 



INFECTION. 89 

Reproduction by Spores. 

Until recently multiplication by fission was the only form of 
bacterial reproduction admitted by naturalists. 

The formation of spores has been observed in bacillus subtilis 
(Cohn), bacillus anthracis (Koch), and in bacillus amylobacter by 
another observer. 

In cultivation experiments made with hay-infusion we may see, 
at a certain moment, in the homogeneous filaments of the bacilli, 
very refractive corpuscles making their appearance. Each of these 
corpuscles becomes a spore, oblong, or in the form of a short fila- 
ment, highly refractive, and having well-defined outlines. We find 
the spores arranged in a simple series in the filaments. So soon as 
the formation of spores has terminated, the filaments can no longer 
be distinguished, and one would say that the spores were com- 
pletely free in the mucus ; but their linear arrangement shows that 
they are produced in the interior of the filaments. These dissolve 
slowly, and the spores, being reduced to a fine powder, settle to the 
bottom of the liquid, where they may be found in great quantity. 

The germination of spores does not apparently follow in the 
same medium ; but, if we remove them to a new cultivating fluid, 
we may observe the spore to swell up and elongate, resembling a 
bacterium with a head. Soon the head, the most refractive portion 
of the object, disappears, and the tube stretches into a short rod- 
bacillus, commences to display motion, and becomes jointed by 
transverse division. 

The Action of Bacteria with Reference to Contagious and 
Ytrulent Diseases. 

One of the peculiarities of all life is the struggle for existence. 
Both animal and vegetable life is encompassed by this fact. Indi- 
viduals of the same kind and those of a different kind all live at the 
expense of one another. Many perish in the conflict. 

Life is a constant struggle with death. Even the individual 
cells of which the organs of our body are composed undergo this 
constant struggle ; the stronger overcome the weaker. So it is 
with disease. 

The germs of infectious diseases on entering the animal organism 
at once begin a conflict with the elements of the same for nutritious 
material. If the elements of our bodies are the stronger, they 
finally overpower these disease-producing enemies, and we live ; if 
the latter are the more powerful, we die. 



90 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

While many forms of fungus-life are known to have an eco- 
nomical value, which we make practical use of in the production of 
wine, beer, vinegar, yeast, etc., it is still more important to us, and of 
no less practical value, that we should know the nature of the action 
of those which produce disease, either in ourselves or in our domes- 
tic animals. In both instances we have to do with questions of 
natural economy, though the directions in which we pursue our in- 
vestigations are so manifestly different. 

While much has been written upon the action of bacteria as re- 
gards their etiological relation to disease, still we are forced to admit 
that the subject is yet buried in the greatest obscurity. We find it 
a hard task to distinguish the essential from the unessential in our 
studies. 

The task we have before us is, then, to discuss the role which 
bacteria play in the generation of disease in the animal kingdom. 

The diseases which have been attributed to germinal action are 
very numerous ; in fact, the list includes all the infectious and con- 
tagious diseases, and many of a questionable character. Some en- 
thusiasts (Hallier, Zurn, and others) have even professed to discover 
the specific germ in every case, and we have in their writings most 
explicit descriptions of the peculiar fungi of glanders, cholera, hay- 
fever, rinderpest, and numerous other diseases, observations which 
the most exact experiments of other equally proficient authorities 
have failed to confirm. 

While our knowledge of specific disease-producing bacteria is 
thus limited, we can safely assert that, with increasing years and 
consequent improvement in the means and methods of investiga- 
tion, it will be constantly extended and augmented. 

It is well known that there are forms of fungus-life which live 
upon plants. A peculiar fungus — ustilago maidis — is the specific 
cause of the rust of grain. It is also known that during one period 
or form of its existence, this fungus lives upon the leaves of the 
barberry-bush ; and practical experience, based on this knowledge, 
has proved that with the removal of these bushes in certain districts 
the sequential disease of corn has ceased to appear. 

A very important question is, Are the infectious elements of 
disease of a gaseous nature, or are they organisms ? 

We know from experimental experience that a very small quan- 
tity of infectious material is necessary to produce certain diseases. 
We also know that, when in case of a certain disease (anthrax) we 
introduce the smallest quantity of material into the organism, a mul- 
tiplication of this material takes place. 



INFECTION. 91 

We know that the disease-producing germs are capable of suspen- 
sion in the air, thereby impregnating it with the property of infection. 

If we place healthy cattle in the same stable with others afflicted 
with contagious pleuro-pneumonia, we know that they will probably 
acquire that disease, even though none of the healthy may be placed 
in direct relation with the diseased ones. The same has often been 
found to result when healthy cattle were placed in a stable where 
the disease had been, and the sick and all others in it at the time 
had been removed and some attempts at disinfection taken place. 
I shall relate circumstances which will sufficiently prove that cattle 
in the same stable with others having tuberculosis have acquired 
the disease, and that by means of the aspired air. 

Of our own species we know that it is only necessary for a sus- 
ceptible person to be in a room for a few moments with an indi- 
vidual afflicted with the measles, scarlatina, variola, exanthematous 
typhus, to acquire these diseases, or to live for a short time in a cer- 
tain malarial district, to acquire either the yellow fever or intermit- 
tent fever. 

These examples sufficiently demonstrate the infectious nature of 
the atmosphere at certain times and in certain localities. While 
this is a fact, still the most contradictory views are entertained, both 
by the medical profession and the public, as to the real nature of 
the infectious elements. We find our medical writings constantly 
mentioning "volatile contagiums," or "gaseous miasmas" — things 
which do not exist, and are entirely in contradiction with the results 
of modern research. 

We can speak of the infectious elements as fixed, or movable ; 
that is, such as must be attached to some vehicle, be it a living or- 
ganism or something polluted with the excretions of the same, or 
such as are easily taken up by the air and transported to some dis- 
tance from the place of generation. But neither of these definitions 
corresponds to our ideas of a gas. 

A poisonous gas when suspended in the air is more or less 
widely dispersed, and soon loses its activity. If it enters the body, 
it must enter in certain quantities, or no evil action follows. We 
know of no means by which it can multiply itself within an organ- 
ism. On account of their liability to dispersion, it is almost impos- 
sible for an organism to inhale enough of a poisonous gas to cause 
serious disturbance in the open air. The gas and person must be 
confined in a room, and a given quantity inhaled, before evil con- 
sequences result. Even though a person may inhale a considerable 
quantity of such gas, removal from it soon relieves its effects. 



92 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

As many of you may have read, in the Catacombs of Rome and 
other such places carbonic- acid gas is generally very abundant in 
the lower strata of air in the passages, and while it is impossible for 
dogs or cats to follow their owners in such places, yet the latter, 
on account of the greater elevation of their respiratory apparatus, 
can walk along in perfect safety. We know also how quickly un- 
pleasant odors are dispersed by the atmosphere. 

A poisonous gas must be very soon so dispersed as to lose its 
specific characteristics. 

Were the generation of cholera dependent on infectious gases, 
we should find it rapidly extending over every part of a city or dis- 
trict, instead of being confined, as is frequently the case, to certain 
streets or districts. So in the case of rinderpest. If the infectious 
elements were of a gaseous nature, our endeavors at stamping out 
would be utterly futile ; yet we know we can frequently confine it 
to a single stable in a village where many cattle are kept. Were 
the infectious elements gases, all individuals with any disposition 
to infection would contract given diseases, as they would be far 
more likely to take up a correspondingly equal amount of infectious 
material than if they were of an organized nature. 

Again, if they were gases, the infectious elements would soon be 
so widely dispersed as to lose their activity. 

While we know the minuteness of many forms of bacterial life, 
so minute that our strongest powers give us but the most inadequate 
idea of their nature, may we not safely assume that there are many 
forms which still escape our observation ? 

Are the elements of infection formless, or are they organic in- 
dividuals — that is, objects having form and life % 

We have two possibilities to consider : either they enter an or- 
ganism in such quantities as to cause immediate action, or they 
enter in very small quantity, and have the power of multiplying 
within the organism. 

By poisoning the first takes place. A given quantity of a known 
poison causes direct and specific action. This never takes place by 
infection. 

Specific poisons have no period of latency. 

The most poisonous of substances act only in this manner. Minus 
a given quantity, no poisonous action, though we may have what is 
known as a physiological or medicinal action which we make use of 
in many of them. If we carry these medicinal doses beyond a cer- 
tain limit, a poisonous action frequently results, which is known as 
the cumulative action of drugs — as with strychnine. 



INFECTION. 93 

While a given, appreciable quantity of poison is necessary to 
specific action, we find in infectious diseases the contrary to be the 
case. We can not appreciate the minuteness of the quantity of in- 
fectious element necessary to produce an infectious disease. 

A single bacterium, in a condition of active proliferation, can lead 
to the development of anthrax, if inoculated into a susceptible or- 
ganism. 

Who would have temerity enough to introduce under his skin 
even the smallest part of the point of the finest needle which had 
been dipped in the saliva of a rabid dog % Yet we can neither weigh 
nor otherwise appreciate the quantity of the inficieus introduced. 

You need no further proof of the impossibility of unformed 
elements causing infection. Unformed elements have not the power 
of self -multiplication. 

We are, then, naturally driven to the assumption of organized 
elements, as the etiological momenta in infection. 

The elements of infection must have the faculty of multiplica- 
tion. They must have the faculty of taking up soluble nutriment 
from their surroundings. 

What, then, must be the real nature of these elements ? Our 
studies and experiments have clearly shown that, of all organic life, 
but one form has the characteristics which conform to these con- 
ditions. That is the bacteria ; or, more particularly, the schizomy- 
cetes, or fission, spore-producing fungi. 

These fungi correspond in every particular with our theories. 
They are small enough to be taken up in numbers, under favorable 
conditions, and widely dispersed by the atmospheric currents. They 
possess the ability to multiply to an incredible degree, doubling their 
numbers, under suitable conditions, in a few minutes. Their te- 
nacity of life exceeds that of any known objects. 

While the essential characteristics of the bacteria in question so 
fully conform to our hypothesis, our practical experiences are not so 
full of assurance. 

While, in some few diseases — diphtheria, intermittent fever, an- 
thrax, and emphysema infectiosum — we find the fission-fungi or 
spores present in great numbers, in other hypothetic germ-diseases 
they are frequently wanting, or very seldom met with. 

While we must admit the meagerness of our knowledge as to 
the manner of life of these bacteria, yet we may assume that their 
deleterious action extends itself in three directions. 

While the infectious elements act in the smallest quantities in 
the purely contagious diseases, when introduced into a suitable or- 



94 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

ganism, experience seems to justify us in assuming that much greater 
quantities are necessary with regard to the so-called malarial diseases. 

Miasmas are not transportable in the sense of the infectious ele- 
ments of purely contagious diseases. 

"We can not acquire intermittent fever at any time or place, but 
must be in localities where it is generated. 

In septic diseases, we have, fortunately, still another condition. 

The continued introduction of infectious material is necessary to 
produce septicaemia ; for experience has taught us that if, by disin- 
fection of the wound, we can shut off the supply, even though the 
wound continues, we may prevent the general disease. We know, 
further, that we can introduce, subcutaneously, no inconsiderable 
amount of septic material into a rabbit, without causing fatal re- 
sults ; but, if we continue the supply, the general disease, blood- 
poisoning, follows. 

We do not know why it is that one individual of a given species 
is susceptible to infection by a contagious disease, and another not ; 
or why at one time an individual may become infected and at an- 
other not ; or why at one time we may go to a locality where inter- 
mittent fever or yellow fever prevails and not become diseased, while 
at another time we may acquire either of them. 

In fact, when we come to the earnest study of the causes of con- 
tagious infections, as well as malarial diseases, we become more and 
more convinced that our ignorance far surpasses any knowledge that 
we may possess. 

Dispersion of Bacteria, and their Entrance into the Animal 

Organism. 

The deeper we seek to penetrate into the life and functions of 
the bacteria, the more do we feel ourselves as lost wanderers upon 
an unknown sea. We find very few known facts to cling to, as rocks 
of refuge to the storm-tossed mariner. There are but few beacon- 
lights along this coast. 

There are no more important questions in connection with bac- 
terial life than as to the means by which they become separated and 
dispersed from the original places of generation ; and, again, how 
they enter from these into the animal organism. 

Notwithstanding our poverty of knowledge, we have still some 
points of practical value at command to aid us on our way. 

We have ail-sufficiently established the non-gaseous nature of 
the elements causing contagio-infectious diseases — a fact which will 
become still more apparent as we pursue our studies. 



INFECTION. 95 

In all strictly contagious diseases, you will remember, the ele- 
ments of infection are always generated within the diseased organ- 
ism, and pass off with the excretions, or are attached to them. 

In miasmas they are always generated outside of any animal 
organism. This distinction must never be lost .sight of. 

It is true we have infectious diseases, in which, originally, the 
etiological elements are generated outside the organism, and which 
have a certain degree of contagiousness by means of their excre- 
tions. This is the group of infectio-contagious diseases of which 
febris flava and anthrax are examples. 

Wherever infectious germs are produced, their generation is 
based upon the presence of moisture, either as a watery fluid or 
some substance containing moisture sufficient to the purpose. 

We find no difficulty in comprehending the dispersion of infec- 
tious elements when they are still contained within or upon the ma- 
terials where they have been generated, that is, by means of streams, 
or of solids or fluids impregnated with them. Distribution or disper- 
sion of infectious stuff in this way is by no means the rule ; in fact, 
it is seldom that it takes place to any distance, unless artificial means 
come into play. Glanders, variola, and syphilis can only be ac- 
quired by direct contact with an infected organism, or with a vehicle 
which has been polluted with the specific elements of either of 
these diseases. 

Only the infectious elements — infioientia — of purely contagious 
diseases are capable of any wide dispersion, and this can only take 
place through the moving of diseased individuals or the transport 
of derivatives from the same — clothing, excretions, hides, horns, 
hair, etc. — or through accidental substances which may have become 
impregnated with excretions from them. Elements of infection 
can only be dispersed in two ways : 

1. By means of water or fluids, or moist substances containing 
them. 

2. By the air, or in some desiccated vehicle or condition. 
Infectious elements do not long retain their original condition 

and activity in water. The nature of the nutriment found in such 
media exerts a corresponding influence upon the nature and activi- 
ties of germs. Metamorphosis into non-malignant forms is fre- 
quently said to take place. 

In pure spring or rain water they soon demonstrate changes for 
want of sufficiency of nutriment. They retain their specific char- 
acteristics longest in those media in which they are originally gen- 
erated. 



96 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The excretions of purely contagious diseases conform more to 
this condition than external media ; but when these are exposed to 
the action of an excess of moisture, decomposition of the media and 
germinal changes soon follow, which are opposed to further con- 
tagion. 

We are justified in asserting that contagions which are sup- 
ported in moisture not their natural media soon lose their activity. 
Such disturbance takes place more rapidly in a warm than in a 
cool temperature. 

The more water a given medium contains, the poorer its nutri- 
tious qualities, and the quicker destruction or change takes place 
upon germs suspended in it. 

In a frozen condition media as well as germs suffer but little 
change. Distribution of infectious elements in a desiccated or dried 
condition takes place either by means of the atmosphere, or upon 
the surface of or within desiccated vehicles. 

The elements of infection retain their vitality longer in a desic- 
cated condition than when in or upon media of a moist nature, or 
when the desiccation takes place with sufficient rapidity to prevent 
decomposition or changes in the media, or the germs in or upon it. 

If the processes of desiccation take place with such a rapidity 
and to such a degree as to remove all moisture, the germs perish. 
Some degree of moisture is necessary to their vitality. Germs re- 
tain their activity longer in a cool, moist atmosphere than in a 
warm and dry, and less long when suspended in a dry atmosphere 
than when contained in a dry substance, where they are protected 
in some measure from further desiccation. "We know that the 
transportation of infectious elements to any great distance by means 
of the atmosphere does not take place, but that they may be trans- 
ported a long distance by means of diseased individuals or infected 
vehicles. From what has been said you must infer that infectious 
elements are largely transported by means of the air or desiccated 
objects, and that these are the chief sources whence to gain entrance 
to the animal organism. 

Infectious elements must be generated in media containing 
moisture. They are not volatile — gaseous — and must first become 
desiccated and reduced to powder before they can be taken up and 
transported by the atmosphere. 

Some authorities have mistakenly asserted that the germs are, 
as it were, torn away from their moist media with the molecules of 
water which pass off with evaporation. That this is false is proved 
by the evaporation of salt water. The salts remain ; the volume is 



INFECTION. 97 

less, but the quantity of salts is the same. "Where we find salts 
suspended in the air, there has been sufficient mechanical action not 
to remove molecules of water, but to take it up in drops, as in a 
storm at sea. With the cessation of the storm the salts drop of 
their own weight ; but evaporation does not cease. Bacteria can 
not be removed by simple processes of evaporation ; small as they 
are, they are larger and heavier than the molecules of salt dissolved 
in water. Infectious elements can only be taken up and transported 
by the atmosphere when in a dried or dust form. 

Two important adjunct circumstances come also into considera- 
tion in this regard : 

1. The degree of adhesion with which such elements cling to 
their place of birth or lodgment. 

2. The mechanical means to which they are subjected. 

"With reference to the latter, the most simple case is where the 
dried mass, or the remnants of an evaporated fluid, are disturbed or 
ground to a powder by some mechanical means which renders it 
easy for the atmosphere to remove them. 

The formation of dust in our streets, which may frequently con- 
tain bacteria, and its removal by the wind, is a fitting example. 

To this end it is essential that the material which contains the 
germs does not contain anything of a mucilaginous or adhesive 
nature, and that the particles of the same are sufficiently small. 

The dissemination of a gas takes place very rapidly in the at- 
mosphere. Even though the movements of the latter be imper- 
ceptible, a bad-smelling gas soon disappears if the supply be cut 
off. 

The distribution of dust is dependent on its fineness and the vio- 
lence or force with which the air moves ; but in no case is it capa- 
ble of very extended dispersion. In a motionless atmosphere dust 
molecules or germs soon fall to the ground. The smaller they are, 
and the more rapid the movement of the air, the longer they are 
kept in suspension. 

So many circumstances are necessary to the dispersion of in- 
fectious elements by means of the atmosphere, it is evident that 
they may be confined for a long time to an individual, a house, 
street, or locality. 

An organism is, therefore, so much the more exposed to a given 
infection, the more it is confined to a locality where infectious ele- 
ments are or have been generated, or the more the air-currents come 
from such a place. 

Infectious elements do not all possess the same degree of dis- 
1 



98 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

persion ; so that, under otherwise similar circumstances, one disease 
may attack a far greater number of individuals than another. 

The Infection of the Animal Organism. 

Here, again, we find ourselves mostly upon a hypothetical foun- 
dation. 

All is not gold that glitters ; so it will be with many of the 
existing theories of fungi-infection ; but out of all we shall finally 
winnow many facts. 

The penetration of germs into the body by means of an intact 
outer cuticle may be looked upon as impossible. 

Whether they can also penetrate through the mucosa, and walls 
of the capillaries of the intestinal or respiratory tracts, is also very 
questionable. 

In anthracis pulmonum, a condition of the lungs due to the pres- 
ence of coal-dust in the finest form, we find it accumulates in the 
alveolae, but we find no proof of its gaining access to the circu- 
lation; the same is true in the so-called "grinder's pneumonia," 
which is due to the presence of stone-dust in the lungs. 

In the intestinal canal we know, from our physiological studies, 
that even the finest qualities of solid fats are incapable of absorp- 
tion ; the action of the gall and pancreatic fluids is first necessary, 
by which they are reduced to an emulsion. 

We are not, then, justified in assuming that bacteria gain access 
to the living organism, either on account of their minuteness, or in 
any passive way. Action on the part of the bacteria themselves 
must play no secondary part in this phenomenon. 

To a passive entrance, or in fact to any entrance into the living 
organism, the respiratory tract offers by far the most favorable op- 
portunity. 

As may be known to many, the capillaries of the lungs are of an 
extremely delicate nature ; they also dip into the alveolae ; that large 
number of bacteria are taken up with the aspired air seems very 
probable; that very few, even in a profusely impregnated atmos- 
phere, gain access to the air-cells of the lungs, must be also true ; 
for the mucosa of the respiratory tract extends from the entrance of 
the nostrils to the beginning of the infundibula, or conglomerate of 
air-cells. The alveolae themselves have no mucosa. The viscid 
nature of the covering of this membrane is of such a quality as to 
warrant our assuming that the major part of such germs are caught 
by it, and gradually find their way back to the pharynx by means 
of the ciliary movement of the tracheal and bronchial epithelium. 



INFECTION. 99 

We know that the fission-fungi have a boring movement, and 
that this is apparently in a forward direction ; the question is, Is 
it strong enough to penetrate these fine capillaries ? 

The answer is, "We do not know ! 

Again, some authorities have described openings, or vacancies, 
between the individual epithelium cells lining the alveoli, and 
have looked upon them as the endings of the pulmonary lymph 
system. 

If such stomata or openings really exist, they offer a natural 
and favorable atrium to the penetration of bacteria into the system 
by means of the lungs. 

As we have said, but a very small number can certainly pene- 
trate so deeply as the alveoli ; but we know that, on account of the 
wonderful degree of proliferation, a very small number is sufficient 
to produce infection. 

The blood, from its chemical composition, and the presence of 
oxygen, united with the temperature of the body, offers the most 
favorable condition for the multiplication of bacteria. 

As to the intestinal tract, we have already said that the nature 
of the mucosa is such that we do not believe it possible for the bac- 
teria to penetrate its different membranes. 

The acidity of the stomach offers very unfavorable conditions to 
the life or multiplication of germs. 

Some have assumed, and among them the ablest of mycologists, 
that an abrasion (wounding) of an intact surface is necessary to the 
entrance of bacteria into the system. When we reflect on the mi- 
nuteness of these objects, and how frequently results of this nature 
may take place, both in the respiratory, and particularly the digest- 
ive tract, we find good grounds for accepting this hypothesis as the 
one favoring the general way in which infection takes place. 

Slight abrasions of the mucosa of the nostrils, pharynx, cheeks, 
etc., or even that of the oesophagus, stomach, and intestines, are very 
common with our own species : how much more so in our domestic 
and other animals which seek their food in a natural manner, or re- 
ceive it from the none too careful hands of man ! 

An unhealthy mucosa is of itself seldom intact ; abrasions of its 
epithelial covering are very common, even though they do not occa- 
sion such disturbances as to lead one to suspect any very serious 
trouble. The proneness of the ruminantia to take up all sorts of 
foreign objects — nails, hair-pins, broken glass, and even knives and 
forks — is well known to many. 

Traumatic inflammation of the stomach and heart are no uncom- 



100 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

mon diseases in our cows, especially such as are grazed on road-sides 
and house-yards. 

Traumata, wounds in the cutis, are very common among our 
animals, and much more so among grazing animals, especially on 
the feet and legs and around the hoofs ; and as these parts are fre- 
quently in places where germs would be abundant (marshes, etc.), 
they offer the most favorable atria to the penetration of germs. 

How do germs act ? 

By depriving the body of nutritive material, by obstruction, cap- 
illary embolism, and by the products which either of themselves, 
or by the disease-processes, are induced by them. 

That they require large quantities of oxygen has been made ap- 
parent ; and it is self-evident that, on their entrance into the body, 
there must be a constant struggle with the red blood-cells for this 
necessary gas. Whether they produce carbonic-acid gas (C0 2 ), and 
thus add to its accumulation in the system, is still an open question. 

That capillary embolism is possible has been too frequently ob- 
served to be questioned. This condition would be but another way 
by which parts, not the whole, of the system, are shut off from 
oxygen and other nutritive material. 

Infectious diseases do not seem to last long enough to cause ne- 
crosis, or necrobiosis (death), in parts thus shut off from the circula- 
tion ; at least, never in my reading have I met with any description 
of phenomena similar to those we meet with in ordinary embolism. 

When an organism withstands the invasion of an infectious dis- 
ease, we may assume that it offers no longer a favorable condition to 
the bacteria ; they die, suffer some sort of a dissolution, and are 
passed off as an effete material. 

Disinfection. 

The birth of crude empiricism may be asserted to have been 
coeval with the first realization of pain or suffering on the part of 
man. The aim of modern medicine is prevention. We are ear- 
nestly endeavoring to make practical the old saying, " An ounce of 
prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

The men who 'boast of their " cures " are slowly becoming less 
numerous among the true practitioners of medicine. 

As observers slowly came to the idea that one disease, and then 
another, was due to some inficiens ; that many such diseases were 
strictly or partly contagious — that is, passing directly from one ani- 
mal organism to another — they began first to take means to prevent 
them : hence restrictions of commerce, not only with regard to hu- 



INFECTION. 101 

man beings, but animals and their products. This restrictive, pre- 
ventive medicine, if we may be allowed the term, has been rewarded 
by the grandest results, though it at first paid little or no attention 
to the primary causes of the diseases it sought to prevent. The 
causes it recognized were those of intercourse and commerce. It 
sought to regulate these with reference to the contagious diseases, 
and the result has been that the black-death and bubo-pest have 
become entire strangers to Western Europe ; Asiatic cholera is no 
longer the terror of the civilized world. Aside from the benefits of 
vaccination, the variolse no more carry horror into the human family. 
The cattle-owner of Europe does not awaken on any morning and 
find the rinderpest devastating his herd. The lung-plague of cattle 
is kept within restricted limits, and so of other diseases of like na- 
ture. 

These remarks have no relation to diseases of a purely malarial 
character, which are based on locality. Here we have to do with 
questions of drainage, tillage, and the like, which we will not dis- 
cuss at present. 

While this work of modern medicine is of no secondary impor- 
tance, the results of the observations and experiments of recent 
years have opened still another path to the workers in preventive 
medicine. 

They have discovered the causes of some diseases, and gained 
knowledge that justifies us in assuming that the causes of all infec- 
tious and contagious diseases are of a similar nature. This cause 
is the schizomycetes or fission-fungi, and their germs, which bear 
the general name of micrococci or microbes. 

Having discovered these objects, the next step has been to study 
their mode of life, how they live and multiply, what elements favor 
these processes, and what are opposed to them. 

Our conceptions in this regard are still far from clear, and too 
frequently our action is based on mistaken reasoning. 

We too often think that, when we have removed the odor from 
an offensive place or substance, we have destroyed its disease-pro- 
ducing qualities, a hope which is only too soon negatived by expe- 
rience. 

The resistibility of germs is such that we may look upon it as 
very nearly fallacious to disinfect the atmosphere by adding to it 
chlorine-gas, or sulphur, or any similar disinfectants. Such disin- 
fection is more or less an idea inherited from the earlier days of 
preventive medicine, and not in conformity with our present knowl- 
edge. 



1Q2 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

In considering the question of disinfection we must ever bear in 
mind that the fission-fungi, or their spores, always occur in one of 
two conditions ; that is, moist or dry. This fact should always be 
settled before we decide as to our disinfecting procedures. When 
in a moist medium, bacteria are much more easily destroyed than 
when united with a dry. 

If we meet with them in a fluid, a boiling-heat is necessary to 
their destruction. Temperatures of 77° to 104° Fahr. are in general 
favorable to bacterial life. The most advantageous has been found 
to be 95° Fahr. The resistibility to high temperatures varies in the 
different bacteria. A temperature of 113° to 122° Fahr. has been 
found sufficient to kill bacteria thermo, while bacilli have been 
found to resist 176° Fahr. Extreme degrees of cold are far less 
effective to their destruction than heat. We have too often assumed 
that when our antiparasitics, or, better, antiseptics, have prevented 
the fermentative processes, the germs have been destroyed also. 
While heat is the most effective of all the disinfectants, we shall 
make no mistake in adding to it those chemicals which are at enmity 
with bacterial life. 

Nageli sums up his remarks on disinfection as follows : 

1. The infectious elements can not be securely destroyed when 
in an absolutely dry condition. 

2. Boiling-heat can only surely kill them when they are in a 
moist or fluid medium. 

3. The antiseptics which have gained acceptance are not posi- 
tively death to them ; they only place them in an inactive condi- 
tion, that is, consume them. (This argument is open to the objec- 
tion that, in disinfection, the disinfectants have been, or have to be, 
used in too diluted a condition, or in such a way as not to come 
either directly or in sufficient volume in contact with the bacteria. 
This last must nearly always be the case in spray or smoke disinfec- 
tion, which we believe to be an illusion.) 

4. They are changed, not destroyed, by decomposition of media, 
by means of a surplus of water or heat, so that they lose their infec- 
tious properties. 

5. They are harmless when removed in a moist condition. 

The true value of the internal application of the antiseptics is of 
a very questionable nature ; for these materials exert fully as poi- 
sonous an influence upon the autositic as the parasitic organism. 

In some cases, as in intermittent fever, it would seem as if we 
could bring the organism so under the influence of quinine as to act 
against the proliferation of the spirillum. That this bacterium dis- 



INFECTION. 103 

appears in the intervals of the fever has been mentioned. Where 
it comes from again during the paroxysms is an open question. 

While this may be true, in a measure, of quinine, boracic acid, 
and some other materials, the internal use of the stronger antisep- 
tica in sufficient volume is too dangerous to be tried. 

A special study of the antiseptics would lead us too much into 
details for our present purpose, and I must refer my readers to the 
works upon that subject ; among the disinfectants are the corrosive 
acids, carbol, thymol, boracic acid, hypermanganate of potash, the 
coal-tar preparations, and the long list of antiputrids. 

Anthrax and Anthracoid Diseases. 

The word anthrax is of Greek origin, and means a coal. The 
name was not originally given to a single disease, but to a group of 
diseases which were characterized by a black, tarry appearance of the 
blood. In any form, the blood is essentially complicated, while all 
the organs of the body are more or less affected. 

Modern research has led to the isolation of one disease from this 
group as anthrax. 

The others may be called anthracoid (i. e., anthrax-like) diseases. 

They are all germ-diseases ; but the germ which has led to the 
isolation of one disease as anthrax has singular characteristics in 
its mature or bacterial form which enable us to distinguish it from 
other almost similar bacteria. 

The disease is also known as charbon (carbuncle), Milzbrand, etc. 

History. 

Of all the pests, or infectio-contagious animal diseases, anthrax 
seems to be the one of which we have the earliest historical record. 
Moses has apparently described it as one of the plagues by which 
Jehovah punished the Egyptians. The early Greek and Roman 
writers mention it under the names of sacer ignis ; gutta robea ; also 
by its present name, and it is also mentioned by Arabic writers as 
" Al bumrah " or " Persian fire." 

Charbert was the first author to enter into any clear and criti- 
cal study of the various diseases of this group, and published a work, 
" Description et Traitement du Charbon," Paris, 1780, which even at 
the present day exerts more or less influence, especially in France. 

Although the observations of the eighteenth century led many 
authors to declare for the contagiousness of anthrax, still others 
declared it to be non-contagious. Kausch, an author early in this 
century, gave a good description of the pathological changes of this 



104 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

disease, and looked upon it chiefly as a paralysis of the pulmonary 
nerves, but declared himself for the infection of man and animals 
by means of the blood, flesh, etc. 

Delafond, 1843, studied the disease among sheep ("Maladie de 
Sang "), and looked upon the abomasum and intestines as the chief 
seats of the disease, and declared it to be an acute enteritis by 
which the blood was also complicated. He denied the infectious 
character of the disease, and sought its etiology in hyper-nourish- 
ment, and in abnormal chemical changes in the earth. Gerlach 
1845, looked upon this disease of sheep as identical with anthrax, 
and proved its infectiousness by direct experiment, and considered 
the contagium to be volatile and having great tenacity. 

Heusinger, in his noted historical work upon " Animal Plagues," 
looked upon the disease as a malarial neurosis, and assumed that the 
infectious elements acted chiefly upon the ganglionic nerve-centers. 
The primary changes consisted of a paralysis of the blood-vessels 
of the spleen and the consequential death of its tissues, hence its 
German name, " Milzbrand " ; following this, the disease is charac- 
terized by vascular paralysis, blood-stasis, extravasations, and necro- 
sis in different organs. Contagious elements are developed by the 
disease, which lead to its extension. These elements are taken up 
by the lymph and blood-vessels, chiefly the latter, from the parts 
primarily complicated. The apparent divergence with which the 
disease manifests itself in different animals is not essential, as the 
essentials of the disease are nearly the same in all. The disease de- 
velops primarily in grazing animals, solipeds, ruminants, and swine. 
All animals are open to infection. 

In 1855 Yirchow followed Heusinger in declaring for the mala- 
rial nature of the disease ; he emphasized its septic character, and 
looked upon the cause as a specific ferment. Wald, 1862, laid spe- 
cial emphasis upon the nature of the soil in the generation of anthrax. 

In 1856 Pollender broke the ground which has gradually led to 
our modern views of the true nature of anthrax, and its isolation 
from kindred diseases ; so early as 1849 he had found peculiar staff- 
like bodies in the blood of anthrax-diseased animals. Entirely inde- 
pendent from the observations of Pollender, Brauell, professor at 
Dorpat, Russia, found (1857) the same microscopic elements in the 
blood of men, sheep, and horses that had perished from the disease. 
He looked upon them as vibrios, and as he found them intra vitam 
(during life) in the blood of such animals, considered them to have 
diagnostic value, while Pollender declared their importance to be 
still an open question. 



INFECTION. 105 

The discovery of these two observers gradually drew the at- 
tention of scientists to the study of this disease, and it may be truly 
asserted that no single disease has enjoyed so much observation in 
modern or ancient days. 

By means of a succession of experiments Brauell came to the 
knowledge that the peculiar staff-like bodies appeared from one, two, 
or three, and in some cases eight to ten hours before the death of the 
diseased organism, and when the course of the disease was very acute, 
but a few moments before its fatal termination, while they were not 
to be seen in the blood of convalesents, He credited these objects 
with a prognostic and diagnostic value, but denied to them any etio- 
logical importance, as the disease could be produced with blood which 
did not contain them, a fact which will find its explanation later on. 

These peculiar bodies were not looked upon in the same light 
by different observers, some considering them as coagaluted fibrin 
(Briickmuller, "Zootomie Pathologique"), fragments of broken- 
down tissues, blood-crystals, while Delafond looked upon them as 
a species of leptothrix. In 1860 the last-named author adopted the 
views of Brauell. 

In 1863 Davaine declared these bodies to be bacteria, and, in 
order to distinguish them from the motory bacteria of putrefaction, 
gave them the name of bacteridice. As the blood without them 
was not infectious, he declared them to be the specific cause of this 
disease. The bacteridise are destroyed by putrefaction, but may be 
preserved for a long time in a desiccated condition. 

After this time, there followed a period of the greatest diver- 
gence in the views of different observers as to the true nature and 
place of these objects : all sorts of things — blood-crystals, the bac- 
teria of putrefaction, the cent-like rolls of the blood-cells, etc. — 
were declared to be the same as the bacteridise. Davaine's work, 
more than that of any other author, gradually led to the production 
of order out of this chaos. 

He found the bacteria to be present in the majority of cases of 
anthrax, and that they frequently appeared before the outbreak of 
the symptoms of diseases ; when they disappeared, by putrefaction 
or otherwise,' the infectiousness of the blood ceased. The number 
of bacilli in a single drop of blood was estimated by Davaine at 
eight to ten millions ; and he claimed that a drop of blood diluted 
to a million times its volume by water was still competent to pro- 
duce infection. 

The modern workers in this field of mycology are sufficiently 
known through our general study of the bacteria. 



106 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Etiology. 

Our studies have led us to the conclusion that anthrax is an 
acute infectious disease due to the action of specific germs called 
bacteria. The disease very frequently assumes an enzootic or epi- 
zootic form, although it is frequently sporadic in its appearance and 
occurs mostly in grazing animals and swine, but is also transmissi- 
ble to man. 

The nature of the earth plays no unimportant part in enzootic 
outbreaks of the disease. The disease is found most frequently in 
localities where the earth contains much moisture, and in regions 
where the rivers, brooks, or swamps are subject to drying out ; in 
fact, in just such districts where intermittent fever prevails among 
men. 

In many regions, such places become generally known as in- 
fected districts, and are either fenced off or the animals kept from 
grazing upon them, or they have been turned to cultivation, which 
has led to the manifest decrease of the disease. Such regions are 
especially frequent in the Bavarian Alps, where I studied the dis- 
ease under the guidance of Professor Feser, of the Munich Veteri- 
nary School. One is surprised that such infected localities are often 
to be found at the very tops of the mountains or upon highly situ- 
ated levels. 

An undue degree of moisture in the earth seems to favor the 
development of the bacteria. 

While there is much similarity in the telluric nature of regions 
where anthrax and intermittent fever prevail, it is not in accordance 
with practical experience that both diseases should prevail in them, 
for we find the one where the other does not appear, and vice versa. 
"While anthrax is a disease, the generation of which seems so largely 
dependent on the nature of the ground, it is by no means a malarial 
disease. It never prevails to any such extent as intermittent fever, 
even in regions where it appears, and which offer every condition 
favorable to its development. 

The presence of the peculiar infectious elements is always ne- 
cessary to the generation of the disease, no matter how favorable 
the telluric conditions may appear to their development. 

My friend Dr. Oemler reduced an annual loss of twenty-one 
per cent among the sheep of his district in Germany to two per 
cent by energetic opposition to the burial of all cadavers of animals 
that had died from the disease. Similar results have followed a 
like procedure on the part of numerous other competent observers. 



INFECTION. 107 

A Russian commission, appointed to look into the causes of anthrax, 
reported the chief cause of the epizootic outbreaks of the disease to 
be the incomplete burial and removal of the cadavers of horses 
which had perished from it. 

Every animal diseased with anthrax, or its cadaver, or any por- 
tion of the same, must be looked upon as a dangerous center from 
which infection may proceed. 

The physical conditions of the earth, viz., its amount of water, 
chemical constituents, and temperature, must always be looked upon 
in considering the generation of anthrax. 

Practical experience goes to prove that extreme drying out or 
draining of a suspected or known district is unfavorable to the de- 
velopment of its infectious elements. In such cases, rains following 
great heat and drought are generally characterized either by the re- 
appearance of the disease or its greater prevalence. On the con- 
trary, drought and heat favor its appearance in very moist districts. 
The disease is generally most prevalent in such districts when the 
temperature of the earth has reached its highest maximum. This 
is generally in our latitude in the months of August and September. 

A question of importance in the generation of this disease is, Is 
an impregnation of the earth with the infectious elements necessary 
to the development of the disease, or are they capable of independ- 
ent development in such earth by the metamorphosis from some 
other kind of fungi already present '? 

The previously mentioned practical observations of the careful 
removal of cadavers, instead of burial, would seem to favor the 
first of these views. 

The chief, if not the only, cause of anthrax must be sought in 
infection, in general, not direct, but by means of some vehicle, the 
infectious elements being extremely tenacious of life and easily 
transported, as has been painfully illustrated by cases in man due to 
dried hides brought from a distance, curled hair, or other animal 
derivatives. 

The most frequent carriers of infection are either diseased ani- 
mals, their excretions, or their products — hides, horns, hoofs, etc. 
Again, healthy animals, or even men, flies, gnats, etc., may serve as 
vehicles to infection. Gerlach reports numerous cases among sheep 
due to the bite of the dogs used to tend them, where the latter have 
been fed or have fed themselves upon the cadavers of sheep that 
had perished from the disease. 

Davaine frequently produced the disease by inoculations with 
the probosces or feet of flies which had first been permitted to pol- 



108 THE DISEASES' OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

lute themselves with the blood from animals that had died from the 
disease. 

Bollinger reports finding the specific bacteria of anthrax in the 
blood of flies which were caught upon the cadavers of such animals, 
and to have produced the disease in rabbits by inoculating with the 
same. 

As further vehicles of infection we may mention the harness, 
stable-utensils, straw, and hay, etc., which have been in contact 
with diseased animals. 

Articles of food — beets, turnips, carrots — which have been raised 
upon lands where cadavers from anthrax-diseased animals have been 
buried, have been asserted to have caused this disease when fed to 
cattle. 

The fluids of the stable — urine, etc. — seem to be less dangerous, 
as putrefaction is known to be in opposition with the life of these 
germs. 

The respiratory tract, the external cutis, and digestive tract, are 
the chief atria of the infectious elements, though the flesh of such 
animals has often been consumed with impunity ; still, feeding ex- 
periments upon animals susceptible to the disease have sufficiently 
proved the infectiousness of such meat. The susceptibility to in- 
fection is greater in the ruminants — tame and wild — than in the 
solipeds, less in the omnivora, and still less in the carnivora ; the 
cat, however, more so than the dog. 

Nature of the Infectious Elements. 

While we have already noticed this subject in our general con- 
sideration of the bacteria, it is of such great importance that we 
may be warranted in treating it still more in detail. 

The fact that authrax could be generated in an experimental 
way, with blood in which the bacteridise could not be discovered, 
has led many authors to deny to them any etiological importance. 
This fact remained incontrovertible until observers had advanced 
in the study of the life of these parasites. 

First their minuteness, and again the very small quantity neces- 
sary to infection, may have led authors to this mistaken conclusion ; 
but, above all, it was the ignorance of the earlier observers of the 
spore of the schizomycetic fungi which led them into this error. 

An interesting fact with reference to the intra-organismal life of 
the bacteria of anthrax is, that the placenta offers a natural filtra- 
tion apparatus, which prevents them passing from the blood of the 
mother to that of the foetus. Inoculation experiments have demon- 



INFECTION. 109 

strated not only the presence of the bacteria in the blood of the 
mother, and their absence in that of the foetus, but also that, while 
the blood of the mother was highly infectious, that of the foetus 
was wanting in this quality. 

This only goes to prove that in this case, even if the micrococci, 
or germ condition of the bacteria, be present in the mother, it is 
not so in the foetus ; but does not militate against the proved fact 
that blood from anthrax-diseased animals without bacteria is still 
infectious. 

Feser has made some interesting experiments with regard to 
the filtering ability of the milk-glands in sheep. He has inocu- 
lated ewes with lambs by their side, and proved that infection had 
taken place, both by examination of the blood and by experiments 
with the same upon other animals ; but the lambs did not become 
infected from the mother's milk, although isolated bacteria were to 
be seen in the same. Inoculations made with such milk, however, 
produced the disease in other animals. 

The presence of the bacteria in the milk, and its infectiousness 
on inoculation, while the lambs feeding upon it were not infected} 
go to support a theory of infection we have already considered in 
our general remarks, viz., that a wounded or abraded surface is ne- 
cessary to the infection of an organism. In lambs feeding upon 
milk alone such is surely impossible in the course of the digestive 
tract. 

The fact that bacteria pass the membranes of the milk-glands 
and not those of the placenta, may be explained by the mechanical 
action and minor lesions, which can result to the milk-glands from 
the sucking and butting of the lambs. 

As we have frequently mentioned, this disease is now known to 
be due to a specific cause — a schizophyte, or vegetable parasite, 
bacillus anthracis — a staff-shaped bacterium which multiplies by 
spores. 

An English observer, Ewart, of University College, London, 
gives a very clear description of the life of these germs, which may 
not be out of place here, notwithstanding all we have previously 
considered : 

" At first the bacilli were absolutely motionless — they had been 
taken from the spleen of a mouse — but in some cultivations, after 
keeping them in a temperature of 33° C. for a few hours, a great 
number of them began to move actively about the field. "While 
at rest they were not altogether without change, for clear lines 
across them indicated that they were in the process of division 



HO THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

into segments. Sometimes a number of rods ceased moving, and, 
previous to lengthening out into filaments, arranged themselves into 
patches of zooglea. 

" The division into two or more segments is not always a very 
rapid process. A rod, which was watched until it divided, was 
made up of three segments, and one of them from the beginning 
looked as if it might separate itself from the others ; but after six 
hours of almost constant endeavor, it was still connected by a very 
delicate thread, and before final separation, which took place after 
seven hours' observation, it was divided into two segments in a com- 
paratively short time, so that, when it did escape from the other ap- 
parently inactive pieces, it moved about the field of the microscope 
like two freely movable links of a chain. 

"After assuming this motile phase for some time, the rods 
lengthened out into spore-bearing filaments. 

" The lengthening of the rods into filaments is an extremely rap- 
id process, and is apparently affected by the temperature. In five 
hours, at a temperature of 32° C, a rod may have increased so as to 
be from eighty to one hundred times its original length, and in 
twenty-four hours the filament may be full of spores. If the tem- 
perature be kept at about 28° C, the spore may not appear until 
the thirty-sixth or fortieth hour. When the spores have once ap- 
peared, all the other changes go on at an ordinary temperature of 
from 12° to 18° C, but not nearly so rapidly, even when the prepa- 
ration is kept in the sun for a few hours daily, as when artificial 
heat is employed. On the other hand, a high temperature, 37°- 
40° C, at once checks all development. 

" The filaments, when first formed, are perfectly hyaline, but 
soon the central protoplasmic contents can be distinguished from the 
gelatinous-looking sheath. The protoplasma next divides into nu- 
merous short pieces about the size of the original rod out of which 
the filament was formed. These contract, leaving clear empty 
spaces between them, and often again divide to form still shorter 
masses of protoplasm. 

" At each side of this transverse line of division minute clear 
specks appear — the first indication of spores. These gradually in- 
crease in size and luster, and as they increase the protoplasma dis- 
appears ; in fact, the spores seem to be developed from the proto- 
plasm. Soon after the appearance of the spores the filaments seem 
to be made up of numerous segments, each segment containing one 
spore, the spores lying at the adjacent ends of the segments. The 
spores now begin to escape. The filament gradually disappears, and 



INFECTION. HI 

the spores appear surrounded by a mass of gelatinous material. The 
spores, when free, according to previous observers, develop into rods. 
My own observations lead me to believe that the spores do not always 
at once grow into rods, but that they may divide into four sporules, 
in which the envelope as well as the spores take part. The spore then 
elongates, becomes dumb-bell shaped, and finally develops into rods." 

The action of the bacteria within the autosite is, as we have said, 
the consumption of oxygen, for which they have a great affinity, 
and the production of CO a . This fact, the absorption of O and ac- 
cumulation of CO a , would seem to account for those cases of sudden 
death by anthrax, and for the symptoms by which the disease mani- 
fests itself — such as dyspnoea, cyanosis, clonic spasms, distended pu- 
pil, falling of the temperature, and asphyxia — which all correspond 
with the phenomena of poisoning with C0 2 . The necroscopical re- 
sults correspond to the same : congestion of the venous system, a 
dark, tar-like condition of the blood, extravasations, cyanotic col- 
oring of different parts. 

A peculiar diagnostic characteristic of bacillus anthracis is the 
abruptness with which each segment terminates : the ends are square, 
as if cut off, a condition which has not as yet been observed in any 
other bacteria, not even B. suhtilis, which resembles it very closely 
in every other particular. 

The tenacity of B. anthracis is very great. They may retain 
their virulence in a desiccated condition for months or even years. 
1 1 Q of a drop of blood has been found sufficient to cause infection. 
Davaine has caused infection with blood that had been kept in a 
dried condition for twenty-two months. 

Bollinger sums up his conclusions as to the nature of anthrax as 
follows : 

" It is an acute infectious disease. The infectious elements con- 
stitute a vegetable parasite, which generates (endogenous) within the 
infected organism, and perhaps externally (ectogenous), that is, in 
the earth, when it finds conditions favorable thereto ; that is, when 
the earth has been first impregnated. The disease is not contagious 
in the general acceptance of the word, as infection from animal to 
animal directly seldom takes place ; but it is highly transportable 
by means of vehicles, from the peculiar characteristics of its etiologi- 
cal elements. 

Appearance and Extension. 

Anthrax occurs in all countries and climates, though to what 
extent it appears among the animals of this country we have no 
definite knowledge. 



112 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

In making a diagnosis as to whether a given disease is anthrax 
or not, it mnst always be borne in mind that no bacillus anthra- 
cis, no anthrax ; when, in doubtful cases, you can not decide, in- 
oculation experiments will always give you the key to a correct 
diagnosis. 

In 1864, 72,000 horses died in Russia alone from the disease. 
In the province of Novgorod (Russia), from 186Y-'70, over 56,000 
horses, cattle, and sheep, and 528 men, perished. 

Phenomena of the Disease. 

The disease, in general, presents itself under one of three forms : 

1. The apoplectic form (anthrax acutissimus), the duration of 
which varies from a few minutes to several hours. 

2. The acute form (anthrax acutus), the duration of which varies 
from a few hours to some days. 

3. The subacute form (anthrax subacutus), which includes all 
cases of longer duration. 

Great divergence exists among the various authors as to the 
duration of the period of incubation in anthrax. In some cases the 
appearance of the symptoms of the disease seems to follow imme- 
diately on the introduction of the inficieus. Fever has been ob- 
served within two hours subsequent to inoculation. Among cattle 
the incubation may continue for four or five days ; in small animals, 
rabbits, etc., twenty-four, thirty-six, or forty-eight hours ; seldom 
three or four days. On account of the variance in form with which 
the disease appears, it is difficult to give any concise description of 
its phenomena. 

In the so-called apoplectic form the infected animals frequently 
drop, almost as if struck by lightning ; they fall into convulsions, 
dyspnoea, cyanosis, and in a few minutes death results. Frequently, 
these violent symptoms are wanting in all prodromic phenomena, 
the animals eating and appearing apparently as well as ever. It is 
not unfrequent to find animals in the morning dead in the stall 
which were apparently perfectly healthy the evening before. The 
acute form of the disease appears about as follows in horses and cat- 
tle : Animals apparently healthy suddenly develop a loss of appe- 
tite ; in cows, the milk secretion is restricted, or ceases altogether. 
The animals begin to tremble, and frequently chills may be seen to 
be present ; the superficial parts of the body become cold. This 
cold stage passes into a febrile, after a longer or shorter period. 
Peculiar contractions and clonic spasms of the extremities are quite 
frequent. During the remissions the animals appear weak and de- 



INFECTION. 113 

pressed, or they may be apparently quite well and ruminate, and 
take to feeding. 

The pulse is increased to double its normal rapidity ; the tem- 
perature rises from 41° to 41*7° C. The excrements are frequently 
tinged with dark blood, or are bloody and diarrhcea-like. 

These symptoms are not constant, but are interrupted by remis- 
sions, which may continue from six to twenty-four hours, during 
which the animals often appear as if quite well again. 

Aside from the apoplectic and acute forms of the disease, we 
have a subacute and exanthematic form, in which we meet with a 
carbunculous and erysipelatous tumefaction distributed over differ- 
ent parts of the organism, especially on the posterior extremities. 
These tumefactions are generally hot, and more or less painful. The 
general habitus of the animal seems to suffer but little change. Re- 
sorption of the exudations soon begins, and it is not very frequent 
that we meet with excoriation and ulceration. 

From sixty to seventy per cent of the cases of anthrax in horses 
and cattle end fatally, and are characterized by the above-mentioned 
phenomena — dyspnoea, cyanotic condition of the different mucosae, 
opisthotonic condition of a variable intensity, spasms of the musculi 
palpebrarum, so that we can only see the whites of the eyes ; the 
animals become extremely weak and are unable to stand ; the tem- 
perature falls below normal ; the extremities become cold, the pupils 
distended, and death appears, under the phenomena of asphyxia, in 
from twenty-four to forty hours from the first appearance of the 
disease. 

In favorable cases, the recovery is very rapid. The carbuncular 
formations in the cutis are much less frequently met with in cattle 
than horses ; otherwise, the symptoms of the disease among horses 
offer no essential differentiation from cattle. 

The intra-vital phenomena of anthrax in the smaller domestic 
animals are far less distinctly marked ; however, we meet with con- 
vulsive phenomena, dyspnoea, and mydriasis. 

Pathological Anatomy. 

The pathological anatomy of anthrax shows no essential differ- 
entiation among the bovine or equine species. In cattle which have 
perished during or of the disease in its acute or apoplectic form, we 
find the blood of a black-red color, thick and tar-like, and without 
the ability to coagulate. The blood has the same character during 
the intra-vital progress of the disease ; the entire venous system is 
congested; the ingesta are frequently mixed with extravasated blood; 



114 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

the intestinal parietes, especially of the jejunum, are more or less 
infiltrated with a sero-haemorrhagic mass. Similar gelatino-haemor- 
rhagic infiltrations may be seen in the omentum, mesenterium, in 
the capsula adiposa of the kidneys, the connective tissue of the in- 
ferior parts of the neck and mediastinum. A sero-haemorrhagic 
effusion is frequently to be met with in the abdominal and pleural 
cavities, particularly the former. 

Ecchymoses of variable dimensions are frequently to be met 
with in the muscles of the heart, also extravasations of variable extent 
under the endocardium and epicardium, particularly about the auri- 
cles. Haemorrhagic effusions are frequently to be met with in the 
sexual organs of females. Genuine carbuncular eruptions are sel- 
dom met with along the intestinal canal of cattle. The rigor mortis 
is not of a very severe grade ; a frothy, blood-stained fluid is fre- 
quently to be seen issuing from the natural apertures of the body ; 
the abdomen is frequently distended with gases. If animals are 
slaughtered early in the disease, it is frequently impossible to con- 
jecture its nature, if they have been allowed to bleed freely, and the 
intestines, etc., have been carefully removed. This is an important 
fact from a public-health point of view. 

The chief patho-anatomic variation in horses is that we meet 
this gelatino-hagmorrhagic infiltration to a far greater extent than in 
cattle. This peculiar yellow, serous, blackish infiltration is difficult 
to describe ; but, after having once been seen, it does not easily pass 
from remembrance, and, aside from anything else, even the fre- 
quently asserted pathognomonic tumefaction of the spleen, is one of 
the most characteristic pathological phenomena of anthrax. These 
infiltrations may be met with wherever we have normally loose con- 
nective tissue, the retro-pharyngeal and laryngeal region, along the 
trachea and large blood-vessels and nerves, in the mediastinum and 
mesenterium, the organs of the pelvis, and fatty capsule of the kid- 
neys. 

The disease is not so marked along the intestinal tract in horses 
as in cattle ; but we find carbuncular eruptions and erosions to a 
greater extent than in the latter. 

The large glands of the body — kidneys, liver, spleen — are gen- 
erally tumefied, the parenchyma clouded, and the vessels filled with 
blood. The lymph-glands also show signs of hypertrophy, and 
many bacteria are to be found in them. 

Aside from the characteristic bacteria, we find the white or col- 
orless blood-cells numerically increased, sometimes immensely. 

Leucocytosis. — This condition is a transient numerical increase 



INFECTION. 115 

of the white or colorless blood-cells in proportion to the red, while 
leucsemia is a permanent increase of the former over the latter. 
This increase is to be traced to the hyperplastic condition of the 
lymph-glands and spleen. 

The red blood-cells seem to suffer some changes ; they are less 
firm in their contours, and have a greater degree of adhesiveness 
than is common to them. 

Bacteria are, naturally, to be discovered only by the use of the 
microscope in the entire capillary system, many of them being vir- 
tually the seat of embolic bacterial obstruction. The parasites are 
also plentiful in all the effusions and extravasations, and frequently 
among the tissues. 

In the smaller animals the necroscopical phenomena of anthrax 
are far less characteristic : the spleen is but little enlarged ; the 
sero-hsemorrhagic infiltrations are by no means so numerous, as well 
as the extravasations. 

A special tendency to rapid cadaveric changes does not seem so 
common to cattle, sheep, and goats, as to horses. The rigor mortis 
often fails, or is present to a minor degree. 

Prognosis. 

The prognosis in anthrax is to be considered as exceedingly un- 
favorable, sixty to seventy per cent of the cases ending fatally 
among the larger animals. In the acute and apoplectic forms re- 
covery seldom takes place, and in the sub-acute the mortality is very 
great. 

Diagnosis. 

The diagnosis is often very difficult intra vitam, especially with- 
out recourse to the microscope, in sporadic cases in localities where 
the previous occurrence of the disease does not give cause for sus- 
picion. 

During the intermissions of the disease, the microscopic exami- 
nation of the blood is often followed by negative results, as well as 
inoculative experiments. However, these should ever be resorted 
to, and, when taken in unison with the above detailed necroscopic 
phenomena, one need seldom make a mistake. 

The bacteria may, however, generally be found in the blood 
soon after death. It must not be forgotten that putrefaction is op- 
posed to the life of the bacteria. 

On account of the extreme degree of infectiousness possessed by 
this disease, the practitioner must ever remember that, in a certain 
sense, he takes his life in his hands in making autopsies upon ani- 



116 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

mals which have died or are suspected to have perished from it. 
With wounded hands, or even the slightest abrasions of the cutis, 
no one should make such an autopsy. Great care must be taken 
not to wound one's self with the knife, or upon sharp edges of broken 
bones, for death is almost sure to follow. 

While a student in Yirchow's laboratory at Berlin, the body of 
a tanner who had died from anthrax was brought in ; the patient had 
simply removed the scab from a razor-scratch on his neck with the 
edge of a raw South American hide — sun-dried, however — which he 
was carrying. This case also illustrates the extreme tenacity of the 
germs of anthrax when dried. 

Prophylaxis. 

Notwithstanding the prevalence of the idea that the prevention 
of the enzootic or sporadic outbreak of anthrax in regions where it 
has constantly appeared is a task of great difficulty, we must say that 
this does not accord with practical experience, as we have proven 
by examples taken from the observations of persons of undoubted 
ability. 

Although it is beyond question that such soils or districts are 
highly infectious, yet we know that the thorough disinfection, and 
other removal of cadavers than by burying, also a similar care with 
reference to the excretions from such animals, have tended greatly 
to diminish the annual losses from the disease in notorious districts. 

Diseased animals, as well as their cadavers, must be thoroughly 
protected from the attacks of flies, by keeping the stables dark, 
blankets, etc. 

As an excess of moisture, or drying out of the ground-water, 
are both known, under certain previously mentioned conditions, 
to favor the development of the bacteria, and consequent infection 
of animals exposed thereto, and as practical experience has proved 
that thorough draining of such districts has been of beneficial effect, 
this procedure should always be resorted to. 

Animals should never be allowed to graze upon known anthrax 
districts or suspected pastures. Such places should be fenced off 
and used for agricultural purposes after careful drainage. 

While these remarks upon the soil as an infectious medium 
should by no means be disregarded, still there are numerous obser- 
vations and experiences on the part of unquestionably competent 
men which seem to stand in open contradiction to the theory of the 
infection of the earth by means of the cadavers of anthrax-diseased 
animals. 



INFECTION. 117 

While so high an authority as Pasteur asserts that the soil takes 
up the bacteria and preserves them, and acts as a medium of culture 
for them — also claiming to have found the common earthworm im- 
pregnated with them, and looking upon the latter as a vehicle aid- 
ing in their dispersion — we know that putrefaction is opposed to 
their life and proliferation. All cadavers have to undergo the pro- 
cesses of putrefaction and chemical decomposition. 

Collin buried anthrax victims within a limited district, and used 
every means known to be favorable to the life of the bacteria, yet 
he fed thirty-five animals with plants in every condition grown 
upon such soil without producing any evil effects. 

Professor Feser buried a very large number of animals which 
had perished from inoculated anthrax, and from which repeated 
successful intra- vital and post-mortem experiments were made, in 
the grounds around the government experiment station at Leng- 
gries, in Upper Bavaria, yet during the ensuing summer, when I 
was assistant with him, we were unable to produce a single success- 
ful inoculation, not only from the soil, but from the remnants of 
the cadavers. The same results followed like experiments made 
with material taken from a very large number of places where an- 
thrax-diseased animals had been buried in the mountains. 

Boloff, the present director of the Berlin school, is, however, a 
strong partisan for the infectiousness of such places. 

Therapeutics. 

The administration of the antiseptics has been extensively tried, 
and, in general, found unavailable in the treatment of this disease ; 
although large doses, as large as safe, of carbolic acid, are said to 
give favorable results to some practitioners. 

Immunity. 

The question of the immunity to infection on the part of indi- 
viduals of the same species of animal life, as well as the immunity 
against certain diseases of other species which exist all through the 
animal kingdom, is one of the most hidden subjects in connection 
with the study of disease. 

The consideration of this subject belongs, rightly, in our general 
remarks upon bacteria ; but for special reasons we have placed it 
here. 

We know that one condition to infection is expressed by the 
practical though scientifically blind remark, want of susceptibility. 
In what this consists we know not. Not every person exposed to 



llg THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

variola acquires the disease; the same is true even of syphilis, 
gonorrhoea, diphtheria, and all the contagious diseases of mau. It 
is equally true with regard to pleuro-pneumonia, anthrax, rinderpest, 
etc., of our animals, though the individual immunity to infection is 
far less in some diseases than others. 

Again, syphilis can not be transmitted to our domestic animals ; 
the glanders to the bovine family; pleuro-pneumonia to man, or 
most other animals, and so on of numerous other diseases ; while 
rabies is the most generally infectious of all contagious diseases, 
passing to nearly all warm-blooded animals. Foot-and-mouth disease 
is, again, very general in its ability to infect the various species. 
Man has a far greater receptivity to the contagious diseases of ani- 
mals than they have to those of man. 

The carnivora possess a very slight degree of receptivity to an- 
thrax, while birds and fowls are said not to possess any in a natu- 
ral condition. Pasteur has endeavored to show, and has, in fact, ap- 
parently experimentally proved, that it is the high temperature of 
fowls, 42° C, which is the cause of this immunity to anthrax infec- 
tion. Normally the bacteria do not develop in their organisms, but, 
when he cooled their bodies off artificially, they did develop, and the 
fowls died. 

I can not accept these conclusions, and think the immunity of 
fowls must rest upon something else than their high temperatures, 
for we know that a temperature of 42° C. is not at enmity with the 
life of bacteria. 

At the time that the above-mentioned experiments of Pasteur 
came out, I was myself busy in the experimental study of bacteria, 
particularly bacillus anthrax. In the disease itself in cattle, sheep, 
horses, and rabbits, the temperature frequently rises above 42° C. ; 
then why do not the bacteria cease to develop, and the animals re- 
cover ? 

I have frequently inoculated sheep that had a normal temperature 
of 42° C, yet the bacteria developed and the animals died. Success- 
ful reinoculations were also made from them. I have inoculated 
horses suffering from influenza and pneumonia that would surely 
have ultimately recovered, with a temperature of 42° C. or more, 
yet the animals died from anthrax, and a plentiful development of 
bacteria took place. 

The above condition is what is called " natural immunity." 

"We have also what is known as " acquired immunity." 

A person who has once had the measles, whooping-cough, scar- 
latina, variola, etc., seldom has the disease a second time. Excep- 



INFECTION. 119 

tions do not contradict the validity of a rule, though they would a 
law of nature. The same is true of pleuro-pneumonia. 

Another form of acquired immunity is that produced by inocula- 
tion, as in variola, pleuro-pneumonia, and, according to Pasteur, in 
chicken-cholera and anthrax. By this procedure the artificial pro- 
duction of a mild form of the disease is able to prevent natural 
infection. According to Pasteur, we have a still more striking 
phenomenon in anthrax. 

His experiments led him to affirm that the inoculation of ani- 
mals with a virus which has been attended by a certain series of arti- 
ficial cultivation, made in a peculiar manner, was capable of prevent- 
ing the eruption of the diseases when inoculated with blood of a 
most virulent character. 

He says : " Fifty sheep were placed at my disposition for inocu- 
lation. Twenty-five of them were inoculated with a known virulent 
material, and twenty-five were vaccinated with a prepared attenuated 
virus. The first twenty-five all died. Two weeks subsequent to 
the vaccination the other twenty-five were reinoculated with a virus 
of known malignancy : they all resisted infection. (This subject is 
of the greatest importance, but governmental support is necessary 
before we can thus advance the science of preventive medicine in 
this country.) 

Again, there is a species of acquired immunity of another kind. 
It is known that syphilis is slowly becoming less virulent among the 
people of the civilized world. "We are less open to infection, and 
the disease is not so malignant. People acquire a certain degree of 
immunity against the poisonous action of certain drugs, by gradually 
increasing the amount taken, as illustrated both by the sick-bed and 
by acquired habits in the use of opium, arsenic, or even those luxu- 
ries tobacco and alcohol. 

The first cigar makes us sick, but finally we can smoke all day. 
So it is with alcohol : we can gradually adapt ourselves to larger and 
larger quantities. 

To my mind there is but one explanation to all this, and that of a 
very philosophical (i. e., theoretical) nature, although we have observa- 
tions and experiences in the natural world which serve to confirm 
our theory. 

The two great forces which Darwin claims have exerted an in- 
fluence upon the changes that centuries have produced in the forms 
and characters of any species of animals, are — 

1. The struggle for existence. 

2. The gradual adaptation to natural conditions and surround- 



120 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

ings, by which are meant food, air, water, temperature, cli- 
mate, etc. 

These two influences have tended to fasten upon a given species 
certain characteristics which become transmissible or hereditary. 

The struggle for existence leads to the survival of the fittest. 

We have already said that in all life this struggle existed. It 
exists not only between all members of the same species, inclusive 
of man, but also between the cells which make up our organs. In 
the battle for nourishment, only those cells which are best adapted, 
from their chemical and physical characteristics, to their specific 
work, survive ; the others perish. The worn-out are continually 
replaced by the new. It is so in all life. 

By contagious or infectious diseases we have learned, to our sat- 
isfaction, that a living organism enters the animal body. Being 
a living organism, it must naturally seek for the necessary constit- 
uents to its nourishment within the organism, or else it must die. 
Where it does not find it, it causes no infection ; with its inability 
to procure it, the disease caused by it must cease. 

We have learned that the life of the foreign organism is depend- 
ent on most of the elements of nourishment upon which the life of 
the animal organism, as a whole, or its individual parts, the cells, 
depends. The red blood-cells enter into a struggle for existence 
with the bacteria for that life-gas, oxygen ; the various other cells 
of the body for the different chemical constituents necessary to their 
life, the sum total of which constitutes the life of the infected or- 
ganism. 

In this struggle, one or the other must win. If the cells are the 
stronger, the bacteria perish, and the animal or individual infected 
lives. If the bacteria are stronger ; if, added to their parasitic na- 
ture, they also produce chemical stuffs at enmity with autositic life, 
they are in a measure supported by an ally in their struggle with 
the cells of the body, and the autosite dies. 

But, with reference to the immunity acquired, we have but one 
reasonable explanation, which is that, in some unknown way, the 
cells are enabled to withstand the influences of their parasitic ene- 
mies ; they gradually acquire a nature which renders them insus- 
ceptible to further attacks — i. e., they adapt themselves to the influ- 
ence exerted by the above-named poisons. 

Like the habitual drinker or smoker, the cells are the same as 
the individual of which they are the component units : they become 
accustomed to the alcoholic poison. 

So it must be in those cases where immunity follows vaccination 



. INFECTION. 121 

or inoculation. The cells become accustomed to the material in- 
troduced in such small quantities, or it becomes so changed that it 
is robbed of sufficient of its deleterious characteristics, so that, while 
accustoming themselves to its action, they are still able to overcome 
it in the struggle for existence. 

The continual infection of the human race with syphilitic germs 
for -centuries has hardened the cells of the organism, so that they 
can better resist their attacks on exposure to infection. In the nat- 
ural world, this acquired adaptability to circumstances exerts such 
an influence as to become strongly hereditary : may it not be so, 
in a less degree, with regard to some diseases ? There seems to be 
no other reasonable hypothesis by which we can explain both the 
natural and acquired immunity which the animal species possess 
against certain forms of infectious diseases and poisons. 

Summed up : Either the cells are strong enough to win in this 
struggle for life ; or, in the struggle, they become, as it were, accus- 
tomed to such influences, and are no more open to the attacks of the 
germs ; or they are overcome in the struggle, and the autositic or 
infected organism dies. 

Antheax est Man. 
Pustula Maligna, Carhunculus Contagiosa. 

The fact that this disease is transmissible to human beings should 
be known to every one. On account of the liability to infection of 
those having the care of anthrax-diseased animals, it is essential that 
the veterinarian, as well as the public, should have some knowledge 
of its deportment in the human organism. 

Until recent years the disease has been looked upon by most 
medical writers as belonging exclusively to the surgical branch of 
medicine. 

That the disease occurs in human beings was known to very 
early medical writers. 

Etiology. 

The idiopathic or spontaneous eruption of the disease must be 
strongly contradicted, especially as we have conclusively shown that 
such is not the case among animals. 

There are no sufficient proofs that show that the disease ever 
occurs in man, except by direct inoculation from diseased animals, 
or their products. 

Medical writings do not give any evidence that the disease ever 
occurs among human beings from the mere residence in notorious 
anthrax districts. 



122 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Man acquires the disease — 

1. By direct inoculation. That is, persons acquire the disease 
whose occupations bring them in direct relation either with anthrax- 
diseased animals or their products. 

The most dangerous procedures are phlebotomy, slaughtering, 
and skinning diseased animals. The infection is in general external, 
and we can generally find some wound or excoriation which made 
the atrium to infection. 

2. By the consumption of the flesh of diseased animals. Exco- 
riations or wounds along the whole extent of the digestive tract 
may be atria of the disease. 

This form of infection is very rare, but a sufficient number 
of well-constituted cases have been recorded, many of them termi- 
nating fatally, to make the consumption of such flesh a forbidden 
article of food. 

3. By means of flies and insects. Cases of this kind of infection 
have been far more numerous than the former. 

4. Infection from man to man has been observed, but few 
cases have been recorded, however. 

Those parts of the body upon which infection has primarily 
taken place are generally the uncovered (84 per cent, Yirchow), such 
as the face, lower arm, hands and fingers, and neck ; or, in other 
words, infection takes place most frequently in those parts naturally 
exposed to contact with infected material. 

Summed up, we may say : Anthrax occurs most frequently in 
man in those places where it prevails to the greatest extent among 
animals, and among those whose manner of life brings them more 
or less intimately into relation with the diseased animals or their 
products — such as those employed at tanneries, wool-pulling estab- 
lishments, and horse-hair factories. 

The susceptibility to infection is less in man than in the larger 
domestic animals. 

Man enjoys no immunity to secondary infection from having 
once had the disease. 

(This seems to stand in more or less direct contradiction to the 
experimental results obtained by Pasteur and others.) 

Symptoms and Course. 

We will not go into detail, but shall simply consider the chief 
primary symptoms, such as we should observe in a groom, or a per- 
son in whom infection would be likely to take place, for the treat- 
ment of the disease is such that an accomplished veterinarian might 



INFECTION. 123 

sometimes be the means of saving either his own life or that of 
others by immediate action, in cases where the delay in procuring 
a doctor would be fraught with great danger to the infected 
person. 

The period of incubation is seldom less than from four to seven 
days (though shorter periods have been affirmed), and never longer 
than from twelve to fourteen days. The first indications of infec- 
tion are sensations of burning and itching, similar to the sting of an 
insect, upon the parts where infection took place. Such places ap- 
pear as small, reddish flea-bite spots, with a blackish center. The 
spot at first swells, but rapidly becomes an itching nodule, upon 
the apex of which appears a reddish or bluish vesicle, which soon 
bursts and presents a dark-red base. The patient frequently de- 
stroys these vesicles by scratching before they come to maturity. 
The excoriated places become dry, brownish, or red, and scab over ; 
a red or violet circle surrounds them, upon which small vesicles 
soon develop. These secondary vesicles contain a yellowish, red- 
dish, or blackish fluid. The circle sometimes fails, but in general 
extends, becomes more and more tumefied, and the surroundings 
oedematous and very extensive. 

It is not necessary to our purpose to extend these remarks fur- 
ther, but the detailed account of the symptoms of anthrax can be 
studied in any good work on human medicine. 

The disease generally runs its course in fatal cases in from five 
to eight days. 

The first phenomena of the disease after the consumption of the 
flesh of diseased animals generally appear very quickly : in six to eight 
hours. The patients complain of shivering, weakness, headache, or 
general sickness. Death frequently results in two or three days. 
Peculiar pustulous or carbunculous centers are frequently to be met 
with in the digestive tracts ; transudations in the cavities of the 
body, sero-hsemorrhagic infiltrations of the loose connective tissues, 
glands, etc., in which as well as the carbuncles the characteristic 
bacteria may be found, as well as in all the capillaries of the body. 

Beautiful microscopic specimens showing the bacteria may be 
prepared from the skin, kidneys, or other organs. 

The diagnosis is comparatively easy where reasons for infection 
exist. The examination of the blood with the microscope should 
never be neglected, particularly of blood obtained from suspicious 
wounds or pustules, as the bacteria remain much longer locally con- 
fined than in animals. 



124 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Therapeutics. 

The chief aim is prevention of infection, much of which depends 
upon the veterinarian instructing those exposed to the danger of 
infection as to the care of their persons and of animals that may- 
have the disease. The danger which may arise from the bites of flies, 
and the necessity of keeping cadavers covered, and of care in han- 
dling them, should ever be especially emphasized. 

The chief therapeutic interference consists in the thorough de- 
struction of the local centers where infection has taken place with 
concentrated carbolic acid, or nitric or sulphuric acid. If the car- 
buncle is fully developed, it should be at once cut out and the 
wound thoroughly cauterized. 

In inward infection by means of the digestive tract, appropriate 
doses of carbolic acid and quinine should be resorted to in unison 
with iron, wine, and other tonics. 

Anthkacoid Diseases. 

This name has been given to a group of diseases in which the 
necroscopic phenomena are more or less allied to those of anthrax. 
They are unquestionably germ or infectious diseases, but differ from 
anthrax in wanting the specific bacteria of that disease in their 
course, and the clinical or intra-vital phenomena. These facts 
should ever be borne in mind in the nomenclature or classification 
of diseases. 

In veterinary medicine we have never yet arrived at an indi- 
vidual independence, and our pathological anatomy is far more 
human than zootomic. But, what is still more absurd, clinicians, 
and especially the authors of our books, both past and present, have 
given names to diseases of our animals because of some fancied re- 
lation in the clinical phenomena to human diseases. They have 
forgotten that the cause of a disease should ever have much to do 
with its nomenclature or classification. 

"What real relation have the diseases called measles or scarlatina 
of our animals to the diseases of that name in man ? Not only are 
they pathologically different, but their cause is different. 

The measles of the hog is the cystic form of an animal parasite. 
It is an invasive not an infectious disease. 

To speak of scarlatina, or typhus, of the horse or any animal is 
equally absurd. There are peculiar infectious diseases of man due 
to specific causes which have never yet been known to exert any in- 
fluence on animals. You might fill a stable with horses and with 



INFECTION. 125 

children having scarlet fever, but no infection would take place ; or 
strew its floor with the alvine dejections of typhus patients, with- 
out causing infection of the horses. 

Who ever saw the characteristic lesions of the Peyer's patches of 
human abdominal typhus in the horse or any animal ? 

The diseases which we will consider under the head of anthra- 
coid are the so-called emphysema infectiosum (black quarter) of cat- 
tle, splenic or Texas fever, and the hog-cholera. 

The disease which Roell calls typhus equina (purpura of Will- 
iams), and which he looks upon as anthrax or nearly akin to it, 
bears far more relation in its clinical phenomena to anthrax in man 
than to genuine anthrax in the horse, though it is unquestionably 
an infectious disease and not a consequential complication of the 
infectious pneumo-enteritis — -influenza — of the horse, or strangles, 
as some veterinarians claim. It occurs as frequently idiopathically 
as it follows either of these diseases. In such cases they simply 
act as a purveyor or preparer of the equine organism to the action 
of a new inficieus. 

Emphysema Infectiosum. 

This disease, which is known to us as black quarter, from the 
peculiar color of sections of the muscles, or as Rauschbrand to the 
Germans, from the peculiar rustling which follows stroking the skin 
or cutting through the flesh of such animals, has quite a number of 
pathological phenomena in common with anthrax, and frequently 
occurs in the same localities. In its clinical appearances it is very 
different. 

It is peculiarly a bovine disease ; but I have had a case in a 
horse in Boston during the past year. I saw numerous cases of the 
disease among cattle during my studies of anthrax in the Bavarian 
mountains in 1878. 

In the following remarks I shall mainly follow the description 
of the disease as given by Professor Feser, who with Bollinger has 
been the only one that has given any special study to it. 

This disease of cattle has undoubtedly been known for a long 
time, but has always been looked upon as an abortive form or pecul- 
iar symptom of anthrax, no independent study of it having ever taken 
place until the two observers named paid especial attention to it. 
It occurs everywhere, but the Bavarian Alps are especially visited 
by it. It is not so much found in the hot months as anthrax, but 
in general occurs at about the same period. It is neither anthrax 
nor any form of anthrax. 



126 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Etiology. 

Like anthrax, it is also due to specific infectious elements belong- 
ing to the same class of bacteria — the fission fungi. The bacteria 
of this disease are shorter and finer than those of anthrax, and do 
not end with the abruptness which is the characteristic of bacillus 
anthracis. They are also movable bacteria, while those of anthrax 
do not in general betray any motion. They multiply by spores. 

Feser gives the following necroscopical description : " Distinct 
rigor mortis of the well-fattened cadaver. Visible mucosae dark 
red. The left over-arm, the left shoulder and a part of the right, 
and the middle portion of both posterior limbs were much tumefied, 
and a distinct crepitation — rustling — was both to be felt and heard 
on passing the hand heavily over these parts. The axillary and 
inguinal lymph-glands were to be distinctly felt as hard nodes un- 
der the skin. The subcutis and tendinous aponeuroses were filled 
with a yellow, gelatinous infiltration in those places which were 
tumefied. The connective tissue in the vicinity of the large vessels 
was much thickened and infiltrated with a mass similar in appearance 
to the above. The muscles appeared in many places of a dark-red 
color — red infiltration — rich in blood, softened, emphysematous, 
crepitating, and of a peculiar sweetish, sickly odor. (This odor of 
the flesh in this disease is very striking, but can not be well de- 
scribed.) The blood which oozed out of the vessels was black, 
viscid, and tar-like. 

"The above-mentioned lymph-glands were swollen, soft, and 
full of blood. 

" The abdominal cavity contained a reddish-black, peculiar-smell- 
ing exudation. Peritoneum clean, lustrous, and smooth. In the vi- 
cinity of the kidneys was a tumefaction filled with a yellow, gelatino- 
hsemorrhagic infiltration. Omentum infiltrated here and there as 
above. The contents of the rumen soft, the epithelium, or rather 
the mucous membrane, frequently peeling off and attached to the 
ingesta. Reticulum filled with soft ingesta; epithelium intact, 
without injection of the vessels. Contents of the omasum firm. 
Abomasum filled with a reddish-brown fluid, the contents having a 
fetid odor; epithelium adherent; mucosa swollen, dotted with 
ecchymoses and hemorrhagic infiltrations, or rather diffuse hsemor- 
rhagic centers. At the beginning of the ileum was to be seen a 
very much contracted portion one decimetre long, of a diffuse dark- 
red color ; the walls were thickened ; the epithelium desquamated, 
and the underlying sinuses exposed. This portion of the intestine 



INFECTION. 127 

was filled with a blackish, coagulum. Many other portions of the 
intestine were the seat of diffuse red infiltration and ecchymoses. 
The epithelium was loose and easily detached ; the contents of the 
intestines in general of a yellowish-red color, creamy, and full of gas- 
globules. Nothing particular to be remarked in the large intestines. 
Rectum stained dark red in many places ; faeces watery and green 
in color. 

" The spleen was enlarged from two to two and a half times its 
normal size ; of a dark-brown color outwardly ; inwardly almost 
black, soft, and disorganized. Liver dark red in color, swollen, and 
full of blood. The blood was coagulated in the large hepatic ves- 
sels ; kidneys, bladder, and testicles offered nothing very abnormal. 

" The thoracic cavity contained a small amount of a sero-haemor- 
rhagic exudation. The left costal pleura presented ingested vessels, 
circumscribed red infiltrations and ecchymoses. Both lungs filled 
with blood, but contained air in all parts ; here and there dark-red 
spots. The pericardial sac contained a small amount of clear serum 
(the normal quantity is somewhat less than a tablespoonful, about 
ten grammes) ; the muscles of the heart of a dark-red color, with 
here and there dark striations. The ventricles contained a con- 
siderable quantity of a dark, black-red fluid and some coagulum ; 
yellow sero-hsemorrhagic infiltrations into retro-pharyngeal and laryn- 
geal spaces. 

" Microscopic examination : 

" a. The blood from the heart contained, aside from the blood- 
cells, numerous micrococci and long, straight, and delicate movable 
bacteria, from 0'005 to 0*01 millimetre in length. 

" b. The spleen contained the same parasitic objects in addition 
to its usual elements ; also the ingesta. 

"c. These bacteria were also numerously represented in the 
sero-hsamorrhagic infiltrations and the dark stained parts of the 
muscles." 

Feser gives the following resume with reference to his observa- 
tions and experiments : 

The disease known as Rauschbrand presents similar phenomena 
wherever it appears. The animals look as if the cutis had been 
blown up, and crepitation may be heard and felt on passing the 
hand over any such parts. The gas from these emphysematous 
tumefactions burns with a pale-greenish color. 

The disease is confined to localities, and appears with varying 
constancy each year, causing with anthrax the chief losses of herds- 
men. The disease appears especially in the summer and fall months. 



128 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Young animals are far more susceptible to it than old ones. In 
the latter it is a very rare occurrence. 

The microscopic examination of the blood, flesh, etc., of the dis- 
eased animals allows us a view of the nature of the disease, for 
everywhere we find the same characteristic — movable, delicate bacilli 
and micrococci. 

The disease, in all probability, must be looked upon as an acute 
putrid infection. Numerous facts seem to strengthen this view. 
Aside from the resemblance of the bacteria to those frequently 
found in putrid masses, we have the acute course, the complication 
of the lymph-glands and spleen, the textural decomposition, the de- 
velopment of gases, and its transmission to other animals by injec- 
tion of its fluids into their organisms. 

The necroscopical results following experiments with purely 
septic fluids are the same in general as those obtained in this dis- 
ease. 

The fact that similar bacteria are to be found in the surround- 
ings of the animals — swamps, stable-fluids — makes it almost sure 
that this is due to infection from outward and the multiplication of 
the germs in the infected organism. 

The disease is neither contagious nor is it of a transportable 
nature, and thus is strongly distinguished from true animal pests. 
Infection from animal to animal, or by means of vehicles, has never 
been proved. The diseased animals come as isolated cases in the 
midst of numerous others, both in the fields and stables. Some- 
times several cases may occur among a herd ; but then they have 
been exposed to the same external causes, and of the herd are those 
in which the inner condition renders them susceptible to infection. 

This predisposition to the disease must be especially emphasized, 
otherwise we are utterly unable to explain why it should only oc- 
cur in young animals, and of these the best developed and con- 
ditioned are in general the ones to become aflected, while the re- 
mainder of the herd are subjected to the same feed, and exposed to 
like external conditions. The flesh from such animals has and re- 
tains an alkaline reaction, while normal flesh soon acquires an acid 
reaction. 

The therapeutic treatment of animals having this disease has 
so far been entirely useless. Carbolic acid, and external cleansing 
and disinfection of the animals, should be tried, however. 

Experience has proved that the meat from such animals can 
be eaten, if well cooked, with but little danger to the consumer ; 
whether it is justifiable or not, is another question. If it is to be so 



INFECTION. 129 

used, the animals should be killed when first attacked, and the flesh 
cooked and eaten as soon as possible, as the meat soon suffers putre- 
faction. 

Bollinger gives the following conclusions with reference to his 
study of the disease : 

1. The disease is neither a form of anthrax nor of septic or pu- 
trid infection, but — 

2. It may be considered as a mycosis of a most dangerous kind, 
which invariably terminates fatally. 

3. The infectious elements may be either endogenous or exoge- 
nous. 

4. The disease, like anthrax, belongs to those forms which may 
be transmitted by the soil. It is not contagious. 

5. The infectious elements are active when introduced into the 
subcutaneous tissues, but also when introduced into the digestive 
tract. 

6. The disease can be experimentally transmitted to cattle, sheep, 
goats, rats, and mice, though cattle become only infected in a natu- 
ural way upon enzootic outbreaks. 

7. Bollinger gave it the name of " emphysema infectiosum." 
"We have now come to the consideration of a disease of the bo- 
vine family which seems to be essentially American in its nation- 
ality, the — ■ 

Texas, Spanish, ok Splenic Fevee. 

I wish it were possible for me to refer to a really reliable report 
or description of this disease. My own studies have been made 
upon the report of John Gamgee to the Commissioner of Agricult- 
ure of the United States, on animal diseases, and published in 
1871. 

I wish it were possible for me to say one single word in favor of 
this report. It is a disgrace to the veterinary profession, to the man 
who wrote it, and to the Government which published it. It is a 
miserably arranged, illogical, and erroneous production. Symptoms, 
definition, and periods, are mixed up, and there is no connection 
between the parts. The pathological anatomy is simply abomina- 
ble, and one which I should be ashamed to have a student produce. 

History. 

An attempt at the history of the disease is made by another 
than Gamgee, but is of such a quality that we do not need to refer 
to it. 



130 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Definition or Nature of the Disease. 

Gamgee says, "It is a disease peculiar to the bovine species, 
which has never been described as attacking Southern cattle, and 
which occurs in a more or less latent form among them." 

I admit my inability to comprehend the above language.' Even 
though a disease appears among a certain species of animals in a 
" latent " form, it still attacks them, and we know that it does attack 
the cattle of Texas, or it would not have received its name of Texas 
fever. 

Texas fever should be described as a peculiar infectious disease 
of cattle, due to some unknown inficieus, undoubtedly of a bacterial 
nature, which for its primary generation is dependent upon special 
localities, climatic and telluric conditions. 

With reference to its " latent " or mild character among the 
cattle native to the localities where it originates, it exactly cor- 
responds to the rinderpest of Europe, which appears in just such 
a form among the cattle which graze upon the places where it is 
said to originate, viz., the vast steppes of Russia. It also bears 
some resemblance to this disease in its clinical phenomena, as well 
as pathological, but differs from it in not being strictly contagious, 
that is, passing from animal to animal. 

I have been unable to find anything in this report regarding the 
influence of the infected localities upon new stock imported from 
other places to them. 

It is like anthrax or black-quarter in that it is confined to locality, 
and some pathological phenomena, viz., the enlarged spleen. 

Gamgee says further : " It is, so far as we have ascertained, in- 
capable of communication by simple contact of sick with healthy 
animals ; and, in the strictest sense of the terms, is neither contagious 
nor infectious." 

That it is not contagious, there seems to be unquestionable evi- 
dence, for we read that when Texan cattle are put in a pasture, and 
merely separated by a fence from other cattle native to these places, 
that the latter do not acquire the disease. But that it is not an in- 
fectious disease is quite another question. 

That it is not an infectious disease as a contagious disease is, we 
freely admit ; but that it is an infectious disease of a very malig- 
nant type we positively assert. 

In this regard it is very interesting to note that it exactly cor- 
responds with an infectious disease of man, which is bound on 
nearly the same localities — viz., yellow fever. 



INFECTION. 131 

"While tlie nature of this disease is still a matter of grave discus- 
sion, all authors unite in looking upon it as malignantly infectious, 
still the greater majority deny that it is also a contagious disease. 

Like Texas fever, the yellow fever is confined to localities, upon 
moist regions, and a hot climate for its generation. By south and 
west winds its ravages extend, while the cooler winds of the north 
and east seem to check them ; and in a northern climate it does 
not prevail, or dies out of itself. The same is the case with regard 
to Texas fever : the famous " northers " of the Texas plains having 
the influence of checking or putting an end to its ravages, and it 
dies a natural death in a northern climate. 

The yellow fever, again, takes a milder or latent form among 
people indigenous, acclimatized to the climate and telluric influence, 
as does Texas fever among cattle ; some races, as the negro, are said 
to be almost exempt from its ravages. 

Naturalized persons, once having had the yellow fever, acquire a 
certain degree of immunity from a second attack, which they lose, 
however, if they leave such regions for a time and then return to 
them. 

Our " report " does not tell us whether Texan or naturalized 
cattle acquire such an immunity from second attacks of the Texas 
pest. Provided susceptibility to infection exists, the inficieus of 
yellow fever enters the human organism and causes the disease. 
They are said not to reproduce themselves (?) in the infected organ- 
ism, but to act directly ; they do not pass from one organism to 
another — contagion. 

They retain, however, their infecting power a long time, when 
once infesting a vehicle, and are highly transportable, either by 
means of the sick, or ships, etc. 

Our National Board of Health has given a great deal of attention 
to this disease, and reports that it is a locally-generated infection, 
and looks upon the inficieus as some at present unknown form of 
bacterial life, which it hopes yet to discover, and then to be able to 
prevent its action. 

This Texas fever exactly corresponds to the above, and it is no 
less the duty of our Government to spend time and money in search- 
ing for its cause, than it is to study the same with regard to yellow 
fever. 

Gamgee says the disease " is not infectious, in the strictest sense 
of the term." We assert the contrary, and will quote his own testi- 
mony in proof of our assertion, and to show the utter fallacy of his 
words, which will sufficiently indicate the weakness of his report. On 



132 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

page 87 lie says : " Nevertheless, there are important data which in- 
dicate that, from the period of arrival of a Texan herd on any distant 
or any defined pasture, five to six weeks elapse ~before the disease ap- 
pears in the indigenous stock, grazing with or after Southern cattle. 
It is proved that animals may simply pass leisurely over a road or 
prairie, feeding as they move along, and, without remaining for any 
length of time on any portion of the ground they traverse, leave be- 
hind them a poison sufficient to destroy all, or nearly all, the cattle 
which continue to feed upon it." 

He then goes on to give cases illustrating this statement. 

On page 88, he says: "At Tolono the largest body of Texan 
cattle arrived toward the end of May, and the disease broke out (in 
the native stock) on the 27th of July. One gentleman of Tolono 
gave accommodations one night to three hundred Texan steers, on 
the 25th of June, and the disease appeared among his own stock on 
the 28th of July. In Champaign County, Texan cattle were placed 
on the prairie on the 15th of June, and the indigenous stock began 
to die on the 3d of August, twenty out of thirty-eight head dying 
in four days." 

" Thus we see that thirty to forty days elapse between the plac- 
ing of Texan stock on a pasture, and the manifestation of the dis- 
ease to the stock-owners of the neighborhood." 

If this is not being " infectious " in the extremest sense of the 
term, and to the full letter of the law, then I admit my utter igno- 
rance of the philosophical use of language, and logical connection 
between cause and effect. 

Still further, page 109, Gamgee says: "Near Homer, where 
there were 4,527 Texan steers, which had been driven to Broad- 
lands, and had communicated disease not only to cattle feeding on 
their trail, but also to a herd of Illinois cattle with which they 
mixed in reaching their destination^ 

Page 110 : " That they " (the Texan cattle) " communicated the 
disease to a very serious extent is beyond all doubt. ... At the 
time of my visit the mortality (among native cattle infected by 
Texans) was raging at its highest point, and men were busy from 
sunrise to sunset, skinning, digging graves, and burying." 

The whole report is replete with such testimony. Further com- 
ment on our part is unnecessary. 

If Professor John Gamgee does not consider the disease infec- 
tious, the people of many of our Western States seem to have come 
to quite the contrary opinion, for, in the renowned Scotchman's own 
words, page 121, " stringent laws have failed to avert the most dis- 



INFECTION. 133 

astrous and wide-spread losses, and while, on the one hand, persons 
interested in the Texan trade have justified their inattention to legal 
restrictions by declaring them one and all unconstitutional, instances 
have not been wanting of mob-law adopting its own expedients. 
Dealers and farmers who owned Southern (Texan) cattle have been 
threatened ; they have been pounced on in the dead of night, that 
they might surely be found in their homes, and there and then 
they have been requested to attend meetings of indignant and im- 
poverished neighbors." 

What more can I say ? Surely mankind never makes restrictive 
laws, especially in this country, to prevent traffic in a harmless dis- 
ease, nor do men go about tearing people from their beds on account 
of a " strictly non-infectious disease." 

Etiology. 

The cause of Texas fever has yet to be discovered. Gamgee 
says, " It is an enzootic disorder " (another contradiction, for enzootic 
itself implies some general cause, of an infectious or invasive na- 
ture), " due to the food upon which Southern cattle subsist, whereby 
their systems become charged with deleterious principles, that are 
afterward dispersed by the excreta of apparently healthy as well as 
obviously sick animals." 

This is a very nice way of using many words to say nothing. 
Modern infection knows nothing of any such " deleterious princi- 
ples" which work in this way. "Deleterious principles" means 
nothing. They might be chemical in their nature, which would be 
utterly incompatible with all our present ideas of infection. They 
might be gases, although modern observers do not accept gases as 
infecting material ; gases they should be, to conform with the gassy 
nature of the report. 

Stages of the Disease. 

Gamgee speaks of four stages or periods of the disease, and yet 
he says it is not an infectious disease. 

Pathology teaches that only infectious or contagious diseases 
deport themselves in this manner. 

He speaks of — 

1. The incubative stage. 

2. The invasive stage (an infectious is not an invasive disease, 
this term being used with reference to the action of animal parasites ; 
hence we should say the period of active infection). 

3. The congestive or bleeding stage. 

4. Termination. 



134 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

I would classify the disease as follows: 

1. Stadium incubationis. 

2. Stadium accrementi. 

3. Stadium decrementi. 

4. Stadium lethalis ; although. I do not see the necessity of a 
fourth stage, as it is always but the final determination of the disease. 

1. Stadium incubationis. The period of exact latency or incuba- 
tion has not been accurately determined ; it is not so well marked 
as in many other infectious diseases, but may be said to be from 
thirty to forty days. 

2. Stadium accrementi. The period of active infection — i. e., the 
progressive stage of the disease — is first indicated by a rise in tem- 
perature. The temperature varies from 102° to 107'8° Fahr. This 
period extends to from four to seven days, and should also include 
the hemorrhagic stage of Gamgee, which, according to him, lasts 
from two to six days longer. 

3. The stadium decrementi is of indefinite length, but begins 
with, the cessation of the progressive or active symptoms. 

Intra-vital Phenomena. 

The ears of the animal droop, its movements become sluggish, 
and the secretions retarded, especially in milch-cows. The appetite 
at first continues as well as rumination ; a disposition to lie down 
soon makes itself apparent, and, wherever pools exist, the sick ani- 
mals apparently seek them out to lie in. 

Some observers assert that a cough appears early in the disease, 
but this does not accord with Mr. Gamgee's experience. Depression 
of the head, drooping ears, arched back, hollow flanks, with a tend- 
ency to draw the hind-legs under the body, and knuckling over 
in the hind fetlocks, are early and very marked phenomena. The 
skin appears dry and attached ; the faeces are not materially affected, 
but in some cases clots of blood are attached to them. The nrine is 
at first clear. Many cases do not attract notice nntil the animals are 
suffering from hematuria, but the urine retains its natural color in 
some ten to fifteen per cent of the cases. 

The visible mucosae are somewhat anaemic, but a hypersemic 
condition may sometimes be observed, accompanied with a viscid 
discharge ; the mucosa of the rectum is frequently congested. 

The pulse is frequent ; in the early stages hard and thin ; it 
gradually becomes more feeble, and in the later stages, as death ap- 
proaches, it is impossible to feel it. It varies from sixty to one hun- 
dred and twenty beats in frequency. 



INFECTION. 135 

The thermometer is an invaluable aid in the diagnosis of this 
disease. The temperature is high at the commencement, but be- 
comes reduced with the approach of death and hematuria. The 
temperature of the external parts of the body varies. Frequently 
the poll, ears, and extremities are very hot in the active stage of the 
disease. At other times they are cold, particularly the posterior ex- 
tremities. 

The respirations frequently rise as high as one hundred per min- 
ute; but in the comatose condition they are slow, deep, and 
labored. 

The nervous phenomena are very marked. Trembling of the 
muscles of the posterior parts is very frequent, as well as of the 
neck. Weakness of the limbs, particularly the posterior, is very 
common, so that many animals are unable to rise, or, if they get up, 
walk with a feeble and tottering gait. 

Listlessness and stupor indicate the approach of the end. 

The state of the secretions is usually indicatory of the course of 
the disease. Perspiration is much restricted ; cedema of the cutis 
is quite frequently met with. 

The urine naturally contains albumen in large quantities when 
hsematuria is present. The milk secretion is almost if not entirely 
suspended. 

Termination. — In most cases the depression increases ; the pulse 
becomes more feeble and accelerated, the respiration labored, and 
the temperature falls to 100° or 98° Fahr., and the patient becomes 
outstretched upon the ground and dies without a struggle. 

In rare cases the febrile symptoms subside, the secretions again 
become active, the urine clearer, and the patient recovers in a few 
weeks. 

Gamgee has seen animals apparently recovering, and again the 
febrile symptoms with diarrhoea have appeared, and they have died 
within thirty-six to forty-eight hours. 

Post-Mortal Phenomena. 

" That form of splenic fever which is most latent and seen among 
Southern cattle is not recognizable after death by the condition of 
the skin, muscles, or in many cases even by the mucosae, with the 
exception of that of the stomach." 

The spleens and livers are enlarged to a more or less degree. 

On removal of the skin, haemorrhages and serous infiltrations 
are sometimes found beneath the lower jaw and neck. 

The muscular system is normal (?). 



136 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The organs of respiration are in many cases healthy. 

The mouth, pharynx, and oesophagus are always healthy. The 
rumen is generally found full of food and its coats healthy. 

The reticulum has often been found the seat of red imbibi- 
tions. 

The omasum is almost invariably in a healthy condition. 

The abomasum, on the contrary, is almost always the seat of dis- 
tinct and pathognomonic changes. It is often found of a pink or 
dark-red color. The pyloric end is more commonly of a natural 
color. Minute ecchymoses are frequently to be seen studding its 
surface. Erosions of the epithelium are common. The duodenum 
is often of a deep-red color ; sometimes its mucosa is deeply tinged 
with bile ; ecchymoses are frequently met with. 

The jejunum is frequently reddened, and circumscribed hsemor- 
rhagic centres are often to be seen. The caecum is often the seat of 
extensive ecchymoses ; in the colon the same. The rectum is often 
the seat of extensive haemorrhages ; the liver of fatty degeneration, 
congested, and heavy. 

(I will here state the gall-ducts are filled with gall, and that the 
microscopic examination of the liver often reveals a most beautiful 
condition of natural injection of the gall-capillaries, though no micro- 
scopical examination of tissues or organs seems to have been made 
in this report.) 

The gall-bladder is usually found distended and filled with a 
viscid fluid. 

The spleen is uniformly enlarged, and weighs from two to ten 
pounds. Its pulp is soft and degenerated, and oozes over the cut 
surface. The kidneys are perfectly healthy (?), but are most com- 
monly of a dark brown-red color from intense congestion. 

In the majority of cases the bladder is found filled with bloody 
urine. 

~No marked changes are found in the nervous system, except in 
those cases where paresis exists, when haemorrhages may be seen 
in the cord of the lumbar region of varying extent. The dura and 
pia are sometimes the seat of ecchymoses of variable extent. 

Microscopic Examination. 

As we have said, no microscopical examination of the tissues or 
organs appears to have been made. Neither germs nor anything 
abnormal seems to have been found in the blood ; but I am entirely 
dissatisfied with this part of the report. 

Treatment appears to be useless, yet quinine in large doses and 



THE DOG. 137 

carbolic acid in appropriate doses should be tried in case of valuable 
cattle, and purgatives are certainly indicated in certain conditions 
of the disease. 

Prophylaxis. 

In reference to Texas, or wherever this disease originally ap- 
peared, we are as yet in such ignorance of its true cause that we can 
not well speak of successful means of prevention. 

It would seem that the same rules which are applicable to an- 
thrax and kindred diseases — as to draining the land, etc. — should be 
of value here. 

The trade in Texas cattle should be regulated by national laws, 
so that no contact between them and natives could possibly take 
place. 

The disinfection of rail-cars, stock-yards, the proper isolation of 
pastures on which such cattle had been grazed or unloaded for a 
period of at least two months from the time the last Texans were 
upon them — all these measures are indicated by the report which 
we have just considered ; and, lastly, our present knowledge is as 
yet so imperfect with regard to this disease, and the losses the coun- 
try yearly incurs from it so extensive, it is surely indicated that our 
Government should institute further researches in regard to it. 



THE DOG. 



"We have previously considered some of the most direful influ- 
ences exerted by certain diseases of swine and cattle, or their prod- 
ucts, upon the human race, and have now to consider some of the 
dangers to which we are subjected by that faithful companion of 
man, not to be less highly prized but more carefully watched — the 
dog. It is very doubtful if mankind truly appreciate these dangers, 
threatening not only their health but their lives in too many in- 
stances ; and especially is this true of the dog. One of the most 
disturbing forms of parasitic invasion is derived in some unknown 
way from the dog. 

Tcenia echinococcus is the name which has been given to the 
smallest tape-worm yet found infesting animal life, being about four 
millimetres long, and consisting of but three sections or proglottids. 
The scolex, or head, is marked by a prominent rostellum, or crown, 
and armed with from thirty to fifty hooks, placed in two rows around 



138 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

the base of the rostellum. This parasite, in its mature form, makes 
its home in the superior (anterior) part of the intestinal canal of the 
dog, where it is sometimes met with in such numbers that one 
could hardly believe the mass before him was made up of countless 
examples of this taenia. They frequently give rise to most severe 
disturbance to the canine organism, the animal demonstrating such 
furious phenomena that they have been mistaken for those of rabies. 
This taenia, or rather its cysticerc (embryo) form, gains access to 
the human organism, as well as that of many animals, as the horse, 
cattle, sheep, and swine, and gives rise to the development of enor- 
mous cysts or sacs, sometimes multilocular or compound, seriously 
disturbing the invaded organ. 

Examples of invasion among human beings have been met with 
among the inhabitants of nearly all countries, but most notably 
among those of Iceland, where, according to Thorstensen, every 
seventh inhabitant serves as an autosite (host) for these pests. 

These cysts have been found in nearly all organs. Bollinger 
gives the following percentage of invasions among the different or- 
gans of the human body, taken from 252 cases : 

In the liver 176 times. 

" " kidneys 3 " 

" " spleen 2 " 

" " abdominal cavity 54 " 

" " lungs 7 " 

" " head 4 " 

" " mammae (breasts) 1 " 

" other places 8 " 

Of 9,703 autopsies, made at different pathological institutes, 
echinococcus cysts were found as follows : * 

Berlin from 4,770 autopsies, 33 cases. 

Dresden 

Gottingen 

Erlangen 

Zurich 

Eouen 

Total 9,703 " 51 " 

Naturally, the great aim with reference to this parasite, as of all 
others, is prevention. This consists entirely in "keeping dogs in their 
proper places — in absolutely disdaining all those disgusting famil- 
iarities which are only too frequently indulged in by lovers of ca- 
* Bollinger, " Zeitschrift fur Thiermedicin," vol. ill, p. 44. 



" 1,939 


a 


7 


" 639 


u 


2 


" 1,755 


<( 


2 


" 400 


a 





" 200 


(( 


6 



THE DOG. 139 

nine pets, such as sharing bits of cake, bread, or other articles of 
food, drinking from a common glass, allowing them to lap one's 
face, or those of children. 

Rabies of the Dog. 

It would be fortunate indeed for the human race were this para- 
sitic disease the only one to which they were liable from their canine 
friends. 

Of all the diseases, however, to which our poor humanity is lia- 
ble, there is not one which so calls upon our deepest sympathies as 
that derived from the bite of a rabid dog, known as lyssa, rabies, 
hydrophobia. (This last name should be dropped, as it is based 
upon the misleading and erroneous opinion that rabid dogs are 
afraid of and shun vjater. Numerous observations have been, how- 
ever, recorded, by competent observers, of rabid dogs crossing streams 
of water, and attacking animals upon an opposite shore.) 

The disease in man has been known since the early days of the 
Christian era. It does not seem to have been known to Aristotle, 
for he says : " Dogs are subject to rabies ; it makes them mad ; all 
animals that they bite also become mad, with the exception of 
man." The validity of this last passage has been questioned. The 
disease in man can be said to have been unknown, at least unde- 
scribed, before Aristotle. It is doubtful if Hippocrates described it 
in the dog. Up to the time of Celsus, a. d. 200, we still find no 
description of it : it is in his writings that we find the word " hy- 
drophobia " first appearing. The views of the writers of the third 
and fourth centuries (Plutarch, Pliny, Caelius Aurelius, and others) 
were adhered to, and but little enlarged upon, by medical authors as 
late as the sixteenth century. 

As nearly every one knows, and as every one should know, rabies 
of man is a disease which owes its genesis solely to the bite of a rabid 
animal, more especially the dog, and is an acute infectious disease, 
having an invariably fatal termination. The disease in man has 
been artificially communicated to animals by inoculation, but trans- 
mission from man to man has never yet unquestionably taken place. 

As said, mankind in general owes its infection to being bitten 
by a rabid dog : it has been statistically estimated that 90 per cent 
of the cases of human rabies are due to this source, while from other 
animals it has been estimated that 4 per cent have been due to bites 
from rabid cats, 4 per cent from wolves, and 2 per cent from foxes. 

" Of 796 human beings that died from rabies in France, "Wur- 
temberg, and Milan, 716 owed their infection to the bite of rabid 



140 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

dogs, 30 to that from cats, 31 of wolves, 19 of foxes, and 1 to that 
from a cow." 

As regards that part of the human organism which has been most 
frequently bitten, Bollinger further says that, in 495 cases, 263 = 
53 per cent, were bitten upon the superior extremities, hands and 
arms ; 110 = 22 per cent, upon the head and face ; and 14 = 3 per 
cent, upon the lower extremities. The bites upon the face appear 
to be accompanied with a greater percentage of mortality than those 
of other parts of the human body. An interesting yet horrifying 
example of the devastations and suffering which may be caused by 
a single rabid dog is given by the German veterinarians Oemler and 
Guenther : 

" In December, 1871, the dog of a butcher showed indications 
of being rabid. It was confined in a stable, where it tore in pieces 
a goat and two geese, and finally freed itself by gnawing through 
the stable-door. Before morning, it had bitten several dogs in the 
village, and then commenced roaming over the country, passing 
through villages, and in thirty hours encompassed some thirteen 
German or fifty-two English miles before it was shot. On its way 
it bit many living things. The people of the villages became terri- 
bly frightened, from the fearful tendency to bite shown by the in- 
furiated beast. Nine persons coming out of a church were sprung 
upon and terribly bitten, one of them, a woman, to such a degree 
as to necessitate conveying her home in a wagon. In all, fifteen 
persons were bitten by this dog, mostly upon the head and face ; of 
these eleven died of rabies." (Bollinger, loc. cit., p. 574.) 

It is highly probable that dogs can communicate this disease in 
the earliest stages of its incubation, even before any very striking 
phenomena of illness may betray themselves. This seems amply 
sufficient to explain those cases of rabies in man which have followed 
the bites of dogs in which no suspicious phenomena had been ob- 
served, and which has led to the erroneous opinion that, if a dog 
afterward " goes mad," the person bitten by it will also " follow 
suit," and which has also led to the serious mistake of the immediate 
killing of the dog. In this regard I once knew of a singular case 
of superstition. A coachman in one of our leading families of Bos- 
ton kept quite a number of bull-terriers, and indulged in fighting 
them : he was engaged one day in the so-called " training " of one 
of them, when the dog accidentally bit the man's hand. Like most 
of this class of persons, the man was strongly superstitious with ref- 
erence to the bite from a dog : he had heard that a sure means to 
prevent himself from ever becoming mad was to cut the heart out 



THE DOG. 141 

of the living dog and bind it, split open, upon the bitten part. The 
dog was muzzled, triced up, and the heart cut out and applied as 
described. As the man had not become " mad " at last accounts, he 
probably thinks that his " cure " was effectual. 

A few cases have been recorded of persons becoming infected 
from non-suspected but already infected dogs licking parts of their 
persons which were wounded, or where veterinarians have been 
made victims of their devotions to their studies, at a time when 
they had abrasions upon their hands, by making autopsies of dogs 
dying of rabies. About 50 per cent of the persons bitten by rabid 
dogs die from this horrible disease. Of 855 cases, 399 died. If we 
take, however, the bites which have resulted from suspected animals, 
and add them to the above, the percentage is reduced to about 8 
per cent. Of 1,362 bitten by rabid and suspected dogs, 105 died. 

The importance of the value of cauterization of wounds caused 
by the bite of a suspected or rabid dog is well shown by statistics 
given by Bollinger, page 618 : 

"Of 195 deaths from rabies in France between 1850-62, 111 
were not cauterized at all, 45 too late, and 39 insufficiently. Of 
200 human beings bitten by rabid dogs, 134 were thoroughly cau- 
terized ; of these 92, 69 per cent, remained healthy, and 42, 31 per 
cent, died from rabies. By non-cauterization of the wounds in 6Q 
cases, the mortality was 55, 84 per cent. Consequently, while after 
cauterization of the wounds made by the bites from rabid dogs, 
scarcely two sixths (31 per cent) of the persons bitten die, by the 
neglect of this simple process five sixths (84> per cent) have termi- 
nated with death" 

With relation to bites of clad or unclad parts of the body, we 
find the percentage of mortality for the face and head as 90 per 
cent ; for the hands, 63 per cent ; for the body, 63 per cent ; for 
the lower limbs, 28 per cent ; for the superior, 20 per cent. As to 
sex, we find 60 per cent ascribed to males, and 40 per cent to 
females. 

The consumption of the flesh and milk from rabid animals has 
been found to be without harm to human beings. 

The percentage which the disease attains among human beings 
is dependent upon its extension among animals, especially among 
dogs. In Prussia, we find that the average deaths for fifteen years, 
1820-34, amounted to 71 yearly ; in Austria, for eighteen years, 
1830-'47, 58 ; in France, for twelve years, 1850-'62, 24-25 cases ; 
in Bavaria, for five years, 1863-'67, 13*8 yearly ; for the seven years 
between 1868 and 1875, 18 per year ; in the district of Upper Ba- 



142 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

varia, in 1875, 8 persons died of rabies. . (Bollinger, loc. cit., page 
600.) 

"Dr. Hermann, of St. Petersburg, gives quite an interesting 
paper on the ' Nature of Hydrophobia and its Treatment,' in the 
1 St. Petersburg medicinische Zeitschrift ' for 1875. From it we 
learn that rabies is on the increase among the dogs of Russia, and 
consequently among human beings. From tables given by him it 
may be observed that, in 1863, the reported cases of rabid dogs 
were 8, suspected 7, while the number of people who perished from 
hydrophobia was only 3. From that year up to 1874 there has been 
a varying increase, until, in that year, 49 people were bitten by 
rabid dogs, 12 by suspected dogs, 74 by diseased dogs, and 268 by 
healthy dogs, while the number of people who died from hydro- 
phobia was 8. Altogether, in twelve years, 2,724 people were re- 
ported as having been bitten by dogs, of which 1,895 were healthy, 
103 suspected, 198 rabid, and 528 affected with various diseases. 
In St. Petersburg during that period, 25 people perished from hy- 
drophobia, and 22 in the Oberhoft Hospital." * 

The Registrar- General's report, of Great Britain, gives 74 deaths 
as taking place in England in 1874 from the bites of rabid dogs.f 

Hydrophobia caused the death of 47 persons in England in 
1875. The "Lancet" remarks: "It is an undoubted fact that hy- 
drophobia has been increasingly fatal in England in recent years. 
The annual death-rate from this disease, to a million living, which, 
according to the Registrar-General's report, did not exceed 0*3 in 
the five years 1860-'65, rose successively to 0*9 and 1*8 in the two 
succeeding quinquennials, and further increased to 2 per million 
in 1875. In London six deaths from hydrophobia were registered, 
both in 1875 and 1876 ; and in the first twenty-nine weeks of 1877, 
ending July 21st, nine cases had already been recorded." % 

Hydrophobia est Fkance. 

" It is one of the duties of a French prefect to give information 
of the particulars of every case of hydrophobia in his department ; 
but, as may be supposed, these political servants very often neglect 
a matter which has so little party interest. For eight years, 1869-'77, 
only thirty-five out of eighty-six departments returned replies to the 
official inquiries. Of these, however, Dr. Proust, in his own name, 
and that of Professor Bouley, has recently issued an interesting report. 
Their statements show that only one half of the persons bitten by 

* " Veterinary Journal," vol. ii, p. 216. f "Veterinary Journal," vol. iv. 

\ Loc. cit., vol. v, p. 385. 



THE DOG. 143 

rabid dogs, or other animals, escape hydrophobia. The number of 
deaths from this cause during a period of twenty-six years, accord- 
ing to their notes, was 740, or little less than 28 per annum. More 
men than women were bitten, but sex made very little difference in 
the mortality. The liability to be bitten by young persons of from 
five to fifteen years of age was found to be greater than that of 
their seniors, though the fatality of the bite was not so great, not 
more than one fourth, while among aged people, from sixty to 
seventy, it amounted to two thirds, and above that age to three 
fourths. Children, therefore, seem to be less readily infected by the 
poison, though their chances of meeting with the accident are greater. 

" The animals reported as causing the bites during the twenty- 
six years were : Dogs, 707 ; wolves, 38 ; cats, 23 ; fox, 1 ; cow, 1 ; 
and the disease was pretty equally distributed over all seasons. Ob- 
servations on the incubation of the disease show that in a large pro- 
portion of cases it declares itself within the first sixty days of the 
inoculation. Thus, out of 221 attacks, 139 occurred within three 
months of the bite, 54 between sixty and one hundred days, 21 be- 
tween one hundred and one hundred and eighty days, and 3 at later 
periods. The disease lasted from one to fifteen days, the greater 
number of cases holding out about four days. 

" Cauterization, either by actual burning or with butter of anti- 
mony, is generally resorted to by French surgeons. This remedy 
seems to have a great influence with reference to the effects of the 
poison. In a given number of cases duly operated upon, the mor- 
tality was only 35*7 per cent ; while, out of 117 persons left to 
themselves, 96, or 82 per cent, died. Facts like these prove that the 
great evil is not the number of deaths, but the terror and anxiety 
caused to persons bitten by a strange dog. 

"The moral is, somebody ought to be made responsible for 
every dog in the country." * 

It would have afforded me much pleasure to give some statis- 
tics with reference to the extension of this disease among our 
own people for a period of years ; but, unfortunately, we have not 
yet arrived at that stage of civilization when authentic statistics are 
critically gathered by the various State authorities, and in many 
States there are no State boards of health. Some day (may it come 
soon !) we shall have such, and the results acquired by the respective 
State boards will be published in a compact form by the National 
Board, in unison with the devastations caused by contagious and 
infectious animal diseases. 

* " Veterinary Journal," vol. viii, p. 217. 



14A THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Numerous cases have undoubtedly been reported in the various 
medical journals ; but the time at my disposal has been so limited 
and interrupted by other calls upon it, that it has been impossible 
for me to pass them in review. 

As has been repeatedly emphasized, rabies occurs especially in 
the dog, then in the wolf, cat, and fox ; also in the jackal, hy- 
ena, badger, as well as in the horse, sheep, goat, swine, deer, ante- 
lope, and rabbit ; but it is originally a canine disease. It is not 
definitely known when man first came to a realization of this dis- 
ease among animals. Aristotle, 322 b. c, makes the first undoubted 
mention of the disease among dogs. Xenophon, Democritus, and 
others, also mention it. Hippocrates, 460 b. c, has not left any- 
thing in the writings which have come down to us to render it cer- 
tain that he knew of the disease. Later authors, however — as Vir- 
gil, Horace, Ovid, Plutarch — seem to have been well acquainted 
with it. Celsus says : " "When a wound resulting from a bite is not 
at once energetically treated, then follows hydrophobia, a most ter- 
rible evil, that permits of neither hope nor salvation for the person 
bitten. We should seek to withdraw the poison by means of dry- 
cupping, and, when possible, by firing, and, when that is impossible, 
by corrosion and bleeding." 

Galen, 131-201 a. d., describes the disease as the most fearful 
known to man. As a prophylactic he mentions cutting out the 
wound. 

From this time on, notwithstanding much was written upon the 
subject, little new was added to the knowledge of the ancient au- 
thors until the latter part of the last century and the first of this. 
There is still room for much work upon the subject. 

This disease, like many others, seems to be wanting in character- 
istic pathological phenomena, while its clinical or intra-vital phenom- 
ena are so striking that he who sees them once in well-developed 
form will scarcely ever forget them. 

The most important workers in this important field have been 
Chabert, John Hunter, Meynell, Touatt, Hertwig, Magendie, Bruck- 
muller, Bouley, Yirchow, and many other eminent scientists. 

The best work accessible to the American reader is undoubtedly 
the compilation of the English veterinary author, Mr. George Flem- 
ing, " Rabies and Hydrophobia," London, 1872. 

"Whatever may have been the historic origin of this disease, it 
like many other contagious diseases does not originate spontane- 
ously, but in our day owes its origin to the bite of the rabid animal, 
especially the dog, and owes its extension to this means alone. It 



THE DOG. 145 

deserves repeating : rabies does not arise spontaneously, it does not 
originate from nothing. 

All sorts of theories have been adopted and found numerous de- 
fenders, to sink again into oblivion. Among them may be men- 
tioned the influences of extreme heat, extreme cold, want of water, 
domestication, training, confinement, too much ease and petting, 
but, most absurd of all, and consequently held to with religious re- 
spect, non-satisfaction of the sexual desires. 

What has not been laid to this last cause by an absurdly ignorant 
and superstitious humanity ? 

Every form of mental or nervous excitement, superabundance 
of spirits, depression of spirits, poor appetite, a good appetite, too 
much desire for sleep, want of sleep, good spirits, evil spirits, ill 
temper, and about every ill which could be hypothetically connected 
with the sexual organs, has been attributed to abuse or non-exercise 
of their functions. 

I by no means wish it to be understood that there is not a most 
intimate connection between the sexual organs and many nervous 
centres, but I must affirm that many of the things attributed to their 
influence is most absurd nonsense. 

The medical profession seem not only too willing to support and 
favor this unfounded superstition, which has been nourished by 
man since history's beginning. 

Man's selfishness has been fostered at the cost of woman's happi- 
ness and health, and the medical profession has done its part to sup- 
port it. 

One would think the science of comparative physiology did not 
exist, or that its teachings were a myth. 

Blind fools seeking to lead an equally blind humanity ! " Pluck 
the mote out of thine own eye before thou seekest to remove the 
beam from thy brother's eye." 

Some day, when what Haeckel calls " physiogenie," or what 1 
would prefer to call functio-genesis, or the genesis of the physio- 
logical functions, becomes a naked and cold-blooded part of com- 
parative physiology, and is taught im, our medical and public 
schools and described in our text-books, the world will learn and 
know that no functions are given to contribute to man's pleasure 
or selfishness ; but that, when pleasure is united with the exercise 
of the physiological functions, it is for the proper action of those 
functions, and not for the sensual gratification of a conceited mem- 
ber of the animal creation. It may be axiomatically asserted, and 
it is time that mankind should learn it, that man has no functions 
10 



146 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

which he enjoys in common with the remainder of the animal world 
for any other purpose than they are made to fulfill in the lower 
animals. 

The doctrine, or rather the belief, in the superior position of 
man has been altogether too much extended. The pleasure united 
with the enjoyment of functions is an attribute, as I have said, to 
their physiologic action, and is no special gift to man. 

Whoever heard of a person taking pleasure in eating with a 
severe toothache or a sore-throat ? 

The pleasure of taste is united to the functions of mastication, 
not that man may enjoy the blessings which the Lord has given 
him, but that the food may remain so long in the mouth that it may 
be made small, and the starch in it so much changed into dextrin 
and sugar as to fit it in part for absorption by the organs for that 
purpose situated deeper down. 

This fact is not stated in any physiology written by man. The 
chemical changes are, of course, carefully delineated, but the " words 
between the lines " seem to have entirely escaped physiologists and 
medical men. "Were this not so, did mankind and the ruminants 
and some other animals not take pleasure in mastication, they would 
bolt their food like a dog. Some men do ! 

A second axiom is, that where functions do not exist, or are 
rudimentary, either in individuals or species, certain anatomical, 
structural differences exist in such organs which, while we may not 
be able at present to demonstrate their existence, will surely not es- 
cape the observation of scientists in the future. 

In this regard I hold that the organs of taste are either not de- 
veloped or very rudimentary in the dog, which bolts its food, the 
sensation of emptiness (hunger) being uppermost. 

It would be extremely interesting to ascertain if the organs upon 
which taste depends slowly atrophy and become rudimentary in 
human beings who have acquired this natural attribute of the canine 
family — that is, bolting their food. 

To return to our subject. 

Radi and Bourgelat subjected dogs to starvation in order to see 
if rabies would develop itself ; but their experiments were followed 
only by negative results. Menecier received similar results from 
subjecting dogs for a long-continued period to poor food and care. 
Pillwax, of Yienna, observed that a larger percentage of rabid dogs 
came from the homes of wealthy or well-to-do owners. As to the 
influence which has been hypothetically attributed to sex, the differ- 
ence falls away when we consider for a moment the great disparity 



THE DOG. 147 

which exists between the number of male and female dogs. The 
same is true with reference to the supposed favorable influences of 
castration. 

Schraeder gives the proportion of 267 cases of canine rabies at 
Hamburg, in the years 1852-53, as 256 males, 10 females, and 1 
castrated dog. 

When we take into consideration the exceedingly high stage of 
development which is enjoyed by the nervous system of the canine 
race, and the great want of scientific knowledge with reference to the 
psychical diseases of the same, it does not appear strange that many 
diseases, the true cause of which must be sought in disturbances of 
nervous centres, have been, and still are, mistaken for rabies. Nearly 
every uneducated and casual observer would be excused, considering 
the want of knowledge on these points, if he mistook a series of epi- 
leptic attacks, or the phenomena caused by inflammatory processes 
in the brain or its meninges (the membranes inclosing the brain), 
for rabies. In the last case, the phenomena displayed would be 
sufficient to warrant the educated veterinarian to isolate and secure- 
ly confine a dog in which they were present, so little is our knowledge 
upon this subject. 

"We will again repeat that rabies, like all other known contagious 
diseases, never generates spontaneously, but through infection / that 
is, the inoculation or transmission of an infectious element from a 
diseased organism to a healthy one is absolutely necessary to the pro- 
duction of the disease. 

All theories with regard to the influences exerted by the seasons 
fall to the ground in the face of the facts collected by exact obser- 
vation. Epizootics of rabies are recorded from the icy fields of 
Greenland as well as from the sunburned sands and arid tracts border- 
ing on the Mediterranean Sea. Scarcely a land seems exempt from 
its devastations ; but it does not appear, as yet, to have extended to 
Australia, New Zealand, and some portions of Africa, Germany, 
France, Holland, Northern Italy, and of late England especially. 

Bollinger gives some interesting statistics with reference to sev- 
eral eruptions of canine rabies on the Continent : 

"An epizootic reigned at Hamburg, from 1851 to 1856 ; during 
this period 600 cases of rabid dogs were reported, while for twenty- 
three years previous not a single case had been reported. In Saxony, 
from 1853 to 1867, 807 cases have been recorded ; an average of 160 
per year. In a total of 275,000 dogs in Bavaria, for a period of five 
years (1863-67), an average of 800 cases of suspected and. genuine 
rabies were reported. For 1873, the total number of dogs reported 



1^8 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

in Bavaria was 292,000, and 821 cases of suspected and genuine rabies 
were recorded. In Vienna, from November, 1873, to August, 1875, 
332 cases of canine rabies were reported. 

While I have been unable to find any statistics of a similar trust- 
worthy character for our own country, it is not without interest 
to know that " in 1860 we had 112,000 dogs recorded in Massachu- 
setts ; and further, that for the year ending May 1, 1875, 11,489 
were reported as having killed sheep valued at $10,584.53." (Flint, 
" Massachusetts Agricultural Report," 1878.) 

Notwithstanding the repeated publication of the phenomenology 
of canine rabies, still the subject is of such vital importance to every 
dog-owner, and to every citizen as well, that the more frequently it 
is repeated the better it is for the community at large. 

Phenomena of Rabies Canina. 

The wound occasioned by the bite of the rabid dog heals in gen- 
eral very quickly, leaving little or no indications of its presence be- 
hind, unless it has been quite an extensive laceration. 

The smallest abrasion of the epidermis is sufficient for infection. 
This fact, in unison with the rapid healing of such wounds, suffi- 
ciently explains those cases which have been frequently quoted in 
proof of the spontaneous generation of this disease, where rabid dogs 
have died or been killed, and then been most carefully shaved, and 
not the slightest indications of a wound of the cutis could be found. 

The period of incubation — that is, the time which elapses between 
the bite and the appearance of the first suspicious phenomena — ex- 
tends, in general, to from three to five weeks ; sometimes it extends 
to as many months. In the other domestic animals the period of 
incubation varies from two weeks to ten or even fifteen or sixteen 
months. 

As should be well known to every dog-owner, rabies canina pre- 
sents itself in two forms : as furious, and as still or dumb rabies. It 
is not my purpose to enter into minute details with reference to this 
disease, but rather to endeavor to attract attention to the most promi- 
nent symptoms in which the disease manifests itself. 

Writers have, however, divided the disease into three stages, 
and, as laymen might suppose that by these was meant three dis- 
tinctly marked intervals, we will at once say that such do not exist, 
and that, while the periods may be said to mark different stages of 
development in the disease, yet these stages extend one into the 
other so imperceptibly that no intermissions are observable. All 
this dividing the phenomena of certain diseases into periods is more 



THE DOG. 149 

or less a matter of artificial classification, to suit tlie conveniences of 
the clinical teacher. 

These three stages have been spoken of as — 

1. The melancholic or initiatory. 

2. The maniacal or irritative. 

3. The paralytic or lame stage. 

The first perceptible indication which is manifested by the bit- 
ten or infected dog would never lead one to suppose that the most 
fearful and dangerous disease known to man was in process of de- 
velopment in the favorite of the family. 

It consists in little else than a change in the natural deportment 
of the animal. 

This should be emphasized — every change in the natural deport- 
ment of your dog should excite your suspicion, and render you 
watchful and uneasy. No time should be lost, not only in confining 
your dog most carefully and securely, but in seeking the advice of 
the most skillful veterinary expert at your command. Among 
the chief initiatory symptoms are surliness, uneasiness, depression, 
moodiness, a continued desire for change of place, first in one corner, 
then in another ; now on the sofa, then under it : if naturally 
morose, the bitten dog often displays a suddenly developed affec- 
tionate disposition ; on the other hand, the generally affectionate 
dog becomes morose and suspicious, snappish and irritable. The 
most insignificant circumstance will set such a dog in a fit of rage. 
The eyes frequently give indications of the approaching tempest, 
the conjunctivas or linings of the lids being injected or reddened ; 
the eye itself having a peculiar, unnatural expression, which, to 
be realized, must be seen. 

Even in the early part of its development an abnormal appetite 
is often apparent, and is to oe looked upon as one of the most char- 
acteristic symptoms of the malady. The neat, delicate, and cher- 
ished pet of the family turns away from the usual loved tidbits, to 
fill its stomach with masses of filth, such as its own faeces, straw, 
rags, and the like. 

The sexual functions are frequently abnormally irritated, which, 
has probably given occasion to the absurd theory with reference to 
the genesis of the disease previously considered. 

Such animals are more or less resistant to attempts at control, 
and the once true and trustworthy house-dog, or the inseparable 
lady's companion, suddenly develops a most marked desire to get 
away from the favorite door-step, or the handsome rug, and to run 
off over the country. 



150 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The muscular movements soon begin to demonstrate a certain 
want of concord ; they become uncertain, wavering, or weaker than 
usual. 

Such dogs frequently lick the place where the wound causing 
infection has been, even gnawing it, as if it itched ; but a far worse 
enemy than fleas is at the bottom of this trouble, and a more ener- 
getic remedy than " Persian Insect Powder," or great " Doctor Go- 
it-cure-all's Magnetic Enemy to Worms and Insects," is needed to 
rid the poor beast of its troubles. 

Without any signs of intermission, bat rather with a gradual 
increase of these phenomena, is ushered in the so-called maniacal 
or " mad " period of the disease. Nearly all the previously consid- 
ered phenomena are presented to us with a tenfold intensity. The 
whole external appearance of the animal becomes changed. The 
appetite is wanting ; the once docile and affectionate dog is now a 
fiend incarnate, seeking to bite and tear all within its reach ; the 
cheery bark of welcome, which once greeted the approaching master 
or mistress, is changed into an indescribable howl. The tendency to 
wander from home, or break away from its fastenings, is unbounded ; 
the parlor pet seeks to get out, and the chained watch-dog bites and 
tugs at its chain in its endeavor to break away. If confined in 
cage, they bite and tug at the bars with the fury of a maniac, which 
they, indeed, fully resemble. If, up to this time, the unfortunate 
dog has displayed more or less respect for the master's presence and 
voice, it now begins to know him no more, although some cases are 
recorded where the ties of affection have even ruled, in a measure, 
such a canine maniac until life was almost extinct. 

Once free, they do not pursue any regular course, as if follow- 
ing some intellectual perception, but roam here and there, often re- 
turning home, and behaving like disobedient children, afraid to face 
the owner's displeasure. 

According to the previous nature of the dog is its inclination to 
bite during this period of the development of the malady, some 
being more dangerous in this regard than others. The slightest 
irritation, such as the presence of a stranger, another dog or animal, 
the presentation of a stick, is sufficient to set such a dog into a par- 
oxysm of rage ; these paroxysms decrease in severity as the dog 
becomes exhausted by disease. 

Such animals seem frequently, like the human maniac, to be 
gifted with supernatural strength and energy. Chains thought to 
be unbreakable are ruptured as if made of straw ; walls or fences 
thought to be unscalable are easily sprung over ; barn-doors or par- 



THE DOG. 151 

titions so solid and thick that escape is thought to be impossible are 
easily gnawed through, and an infuriated fiend becomes loose to 
prey upon the community and the balance of the animal world. 
Hydrophobia, or fear of water, is never seen in the dog, public opin- 
ion to the contrary. During my stay at the Royal Yeterinary In- 
stitute of Berlin, I had quite a number of opportunities for observ- 
ing rabid dogs, and have frequently seen them bury their noses in 
the dish of water in their cages, in their vain attempts to drink, 
which the paralytic condition of the muscles of deglutition rendered 
absolutely impossible. 

As all severe exertions must have an end, so in this disease these 
maniacal phenomena gradually pass over into those of the paralytic 
form ; the paroxysms slowly become weaker, and the remissions less 
and less perceptible. 

The suffering and pitiable animal has become greatly emaciated ; 
the once lustrous coat dull and staring ; the plump and rounded 
flanks sunken; the bright and intelligent eye becomes dull and 
expressionless ; the tongue protrudes from the mouth, appearing 
more like half -dried leather than a normal tongue. 

Slowly but surely the weakness extends over the organism. The 
gait becomes weaker and weaker ; the hind-legs waver from side to 
side, until finally, overcome by weakness and paralysis, the animal 
sits before you, a picture never to be forgotten. 

Some lie as if overcome by sleep, but, if irritated, will rise upon 
the fore-feet and seek to bite or snap at the irritating object. 

The voice becomes hoarser and hoarser, the attempts to breathe 
are painful in the extreme to look upon, the pupil of the eye is dis- 
tended, and all natural expression is lost. 

Death closes the painful drama in from four to seven days, al- 
though in extremely rare cases the battle for life may continue to 
eight or nine days ; never more than that. 

The phenomena of dumb rabies are so similar to those of the 
paralytic form that I will refrain from describing them. The dis- 
ease ushers itself in, in about the same way, but the initiative phe- 
nomena pass almost imperceptibly into those of the paralytic form. 

This dumb variety, when once developed, is not so dangerous to 
mankind, or other animals, as the maniacal form : from the paralysis 
of the lower jaw, such animals are unable to bite ; it is dangerous 
to mistake this paralysis for a bone in the throat, which is some- 
times done ; the fluids of the mouth are as sure to cause infec- 
tion as those from a maniacal dog, if they come in contact with a 
wounded surface. 



152 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Prevention. 

1. Reduce the number of dogs in each State to the lowest 
possible minimum, by means of a high and rigidly exacted dog- 
tax. 

2. A quarterly revision of all the dogs owned in a State should 
be made by the police authorities, and all dogs, of whatever age, 
sex, or character, found without a license number and tag upon 
their collar for the time in question, and not an old tag, should be 
peremptorily killed at a time fixed by law, unless a license is at once 
procured. 

3. All dogs found running loose without an appropriate collar 
and tag should be peremptorily killed. 

(a.) The police should have power to kill, and not authorized 
" dog-killers," who, as experience has taught us, are more apt to be 
" dog-stealers " than faithful public servants. 

4. In every city, town, or village, there should be, not a pound, 
but an animal quarantine, where animals in which contagious or 
infectious diseases were suspected could be quarantined, for a time 
fixed by law, and remain under the daily supervision of a com- 
petently qualified State veterinary official, no empiric. 

To this quarantine should be sent every dog in which an ab- 
normal inclination to bite has been observed, and especially and 
peremptorily every dog which had bitten a human being without 
justifiable cause. Here it should be caged and confined for a period 
of not less than five weeks, and at the expense of the owner. If 
the owner of such a dog will not pay the expense, then at the ex- 
pense of the city, town, or village, in which said dog is quarantined ; 
the dog or dogs in question, if found healthy at the expiration of 
such a quarantine, to be sold at public auction on account of said 
town, city, or village, or killed. 

(b.) Too much stress can not be placed upon the value of this 
last clause to the community. No greater mistake can be made 
than at once killing a suspected animal which has bitten a person. 
The plan proposed, by ascertaining the real condition of the dog, 
will do more than any one thing to free the mind of a person bit- 
ten by a dog from the danger of hysteric rabies, and also free 
the minds of the community from an unnecessary and protracted 
anxiety. 

5. These regulations should apply to all dog-owners, whether 
breeders or not, and no exception to them should be made, on prom- 
ises of owners to see to them at home. 



THE HORSE. 153 

(<?.) It is the safety and peace of mind of the community which 
are to be considered, and not the pleasure of individual dog-owners. 

The technical supervision of competent State veterinary officials 
(in no case of empirics) is the only course which can guarantee any 
success and protection to the community. 



THE HORSE. 



HlPPOPHAGY, OE THE CONSUMPTION OF HoKSE-MeAT AS FOOD. 

Hojrse-meat steaks ! Roast horse-meat ! 

It is really singular what feelings of aversion one finds immedi- 
ately following upon the suggestion of such articles of food in this 
country. " Have we not beef, mutton, pork, and other articles of 
food in such an abundance that you need not bring up such a dis- 
gusting idea ? " is the next remark. 

The " disgust " in all these questions is simply based upon cus- 
tom. That which is disgusting to the people of one country may 
be most commonplace or a luxury to those of another. So it is with 
periods ; the tastes of different generations vary in other things than 
fashions. 

Thus we see that hippophagy, or the consumption of horse- 
meat for food, was at one time an almost universal custom among 
the pagan people of Northern Europe and Britain. Being a pagan 
custom, it was but natural that, with the extension of Christianity 
among these nations, its missionaries should insist that not only re- 
ligious rites, but other customs of these people, which they looked 
upon as relics of heathenism, should be given up. We find these 
efforts of the missionaries supported by edicts from the popes, so 
that the practice gradually became extinct, to be again taken up in 
the early part of our century, and to gradually extend, though the 
custom has never been without its adherents among the nations of 
the world. 

We can think of no justifiable reasons for such aversion to horse- 
meat among our people. In fact, this aversion is based entirely upon 
ignorance, and its twin sister, prejudice. 

That we have a sufficiency or even a superabundance of animal 
food in our country is of itself no justifiable reason for heedlessly 
sacrificing to the knacker a large amount of valuable food each year. 

One sees upon our streets, at any time, a large number of horses 



154 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

much better suited for the shambles than for work. Poor men are 
often compelled, by a tyrannical law, the result of a sickly and gush- 
ing sentiment, to sacrifice to the knacker, who pays them nothing, 
horses that a few weeks' suitable feeding and rest would make 
worth forty to sixty dollars for meat. Hundreds of so-called weeds 
are yearly born and raised by farmers and breeders, to be at matu- 
rity simply objects of torture from their unfitness for work, that at 
four to six months old would pay a reasonable profit to the owner 
as horse-veal, for the expense of raising and breeding. While, so 
far as we know, no horse-meat is offered for sale in the markets or 
provision-stores of this country and Britain, it is fast becoming uni- 
versalized among the cities of Northern Europe, as may be seen 
from the following : 

For the first six months of the year 187 7 the horse-butchers of 
Paris slaughtered 5,283 horses, donkeys, and mules ; the same fur- 
nished 959,730 kilos (1,919,460 pounds) of flesh ; while, for the same 
part of the year 1876, the number of animals of the same species 
which were used was 4,422, and the net amount of flesh sold, 
803,500 kilos (1,607,000 pounds). In 1878 the number of horses 
and mules thus slaughtered was 11,319, while in 1877 there were 
10,619, showing an increase of 700 head in one year. 

Decroix,* a most enthusiastic hippophagist of France, says that 
" for some years hygienists and pathologists have been directing 
their attention to the progressive invasions made by tape-worms 
in the human species, and they have applied themselves to discover 
the cause of these invasions, and the means by which they may be 
opposed. Notwithstanding several very interesting works, some 
points are still controverted ; but it has been demonstrated that we 
are attacked by the armed tape-worm, tcenia solium, as well as the 
unarmed, tcenia mediocanellata, or better, taenia inermis ; that the 
germs of these entozoa are introduced into the intestinal canal of 
man by the flesh he eats ; and, finally, that the armed tape-worm 
is derived from the pig, and the unarmed from the flesh of cattle 
and sheep. The former, says Dr. Cobbold, are found chiefly to in- 
fest people of the poorer classes, while the latter are more frequently 
found among the wealthy. It is well known that the larvse of this 
parasite {tcenia inermes) are derived from imperfectly-cooked veal 
and beef. M. Regnault has made the interesting remark that the 
number of armed tape-worms has not notably increased, while the 
unarmed worm has become more and more frequent. The certain 
cause of this frequency has been considered to be the therapeutic 

* " Veterinary Journal," iii, p. 47. 



THE HORSE. 155 

employment of raw meat, nowadays very common ; also the cus- 
tom of eating it raw. The latter cause has not been sufficiently im- 
pressed upon the public. 

" Beef and mutton, then, frequently contain, in addition to their 
nutritive principles, morbific germs, the existence of which is not 
apparent to the meat inspectors or consumers. In the first place, 
the custom of eating raw flesh must be abandoned ; roasted flesh is 
generally well cooked, even burned externally, while in the interiors 
it is in many instances still raw. In the second place, when physi- 
cians have to prescribe raw meat, the Jiesh of the horse should be 
chosen in preference, as it is more healthy and nutritive than that 
of the ox, sheep, or pig. The horse, in fact, is not liable to those 
verminous affections which produce the germs of the different kinds 
of tape-worms of which the human body is the receptacle. Horse- 
flesh is more digestible than that of the other animals, which are 
prematurely and excessively fattened. It suits more especially 
weakly, ansemic, or chlorotic people, and those who undergo severe 
muscular exercise. During the first quarter of the year 1875, 1,821 
horses were slaughtered in Paris for food ; while, for the same pe- 
riod in 1876, 2,370 were used, an increase of 549." 

Dr. Hugo Hertwig, the first assistant of the market-inspection 
bureau at Berlin, gives a very interesting account of the different 
equine-slaughtering establishments in that city and the regulations 
to which they are subjected. He says : " More than a thousand years 
have passed since our forefathers ceased to use this valuable article 
of food, which is principally due to the influence of Christian priests, 
and their desire to wean the people away from all relics of the 
heathenism in which they were supposed to have lived up to their 
time. Boniface III played an important part in this matter. Dr. 
Spinola, and a singer at the Eoyal Opera-House, Blume, played an 
important role in bringing it again into use. Notwithstanding much 
opposition, the consumption of horse-meat has gone on steadily in- 
creasing among the people, not only of Berlin, but other German 
cities. A most favorable influence was exerted by the order issued 
by the police president of Berlin, whereby a most exact control of 
the horse-meat market was ordained, and the quality of the meat 
offered for sale guaranteed to the people. The regulation of March 
24, 1854, ordered : " That no horse could be slaughtered, under a 
penalty of a fine of five thalers ($3.75), before it had been subjected 
to veterinary inspection, and pronounced suitable for food." For 
this purpose, a legal certificate was given, which must be kept by 
the butcher, for a period of four weeks, and shown to the police 



156 



THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



officials at any time during that period. An improvement in 
this regard has been since introduced, by which all certificates of 
this nature are written in a book having prescribed printed forms, 
which are kept by each butcher, and are open to the police at all 
times. 

" All places where horse-meat is sold must be made known to 
the public by an appropriate sign, and no other kind of meat can be 
sold from them. . . . 

"The slaughtering of a horse, ass, or mule for human food can 
only take place at the slaughter-houses appointed for the purpose, 
and regulated by the Government." 

The plan of the book for each butcher of horse-flesh to keep for 
reference is as follows : 



Number of horse, 
mule, or ass 
killed. 



2. 

Description of 
same, giving 
age,size, color, 
or other spe- 
cial points. 



Date of in- 
spection. 



Name of butch- 
er, with num- 
ber of license. 



5. 
Attest of veterinary 
inspector, with 
reference to hy- 
gienic condition 
of animal slaugh- 
tered. 



6. 

Day of killing, 
or other dis- 
posal of ani- 
mal. 



It was of great benefit to the public when the numerous horse 
slaughter-houses were done away with, and a general one instituted 
for the city of Berlin, known as the Central Horse Slaughter-House. 

The increase of the consumption of horse-flesh in Berlin is shown 
by the following figures : 

1847. .11 butchers slaughtered 3,000 horses. 



1853. 


. 5 ' 


i u 


686 


1854. 


. 4 ' 


l u 


400 


1855. 


. 4 


l u 


700 


1856. 


. 4 


t u 


759 


1857. 


. 2 


l u 


367 


1858. 


. 2 ' 


( a 


450 


1859. 


. 4 ' 


c u 


443 


1860. 


. 4 ' 


i a 


618 


1861. 


. 3 ' 


l u 


519 


1862. 


. 7 


i a. 


1,042 


1863. 


. 7 


( u 


1,307 


1864. 


. 8 ' 


( u 


1,742 


1865. 


. 8 ' 


« a 


2,142 


1866. 


.12 ' 


( a 


3,115 


1867. 


.17 


t a 


2,911 


1868. 


.18 ' 
Total. . 


l u 


4,026 




. 25,226 



THE HOKSE. 157 

" In Berlin, during the years 1877-78, 4,739 horses were slaugh- 
tered for human food. Of these, 74 were condemned as unsuitable 
before slaughtering, and 89 after ; of the latter, 20 were found in- 
fected with glanders. . . . 

" In 1877 at Altona 1,442 horses were slaughtered, of which ten 
were given over to the knacker ; of these, three were condemned on 
account of glanders, three suffered from pulmonary gangrene, and 
four from entero-peritonitis. The greatest number of horses are 
slaughtered in the winter months, their flesh being made into sau- 
sages." * 

The central horse - slaughtering establishment of Berlin is a 
completely inclosed locality covering about an acre of ground, upon 
which is situated a two-storied building answering for the residence 
of the inspectors, and a bureau for the police officials; further, 
two stables for the horses destined to be slaughtered, and two large 
slaughtering-places with all necessary conveniences ; and two smaller 
rooms, one for the hides of the slaughtered animals, and the other, 
to which only officials have entrance, for the reception of slaugh- 
tered but condemned meat, i. e., such as was proved to be unsuita- 
ble for consumption after the animal had been killed and dressed, 
but not such as came from animals having a contagious or infectious 
disease ; further, for the examination of animals, a room having 
almost entirely glass sides, so as to give the greatest possible 
amount of light to the inspectors. 

For such horses as on inspection demand the attention of the 
veterinary police, there is a special quarantine station, which is 
completely disinfected and cleansed every time it is used. The 
greatest cleanliness is observed in all parts of this establishment, 
special places being designated for the blood and other offal, and 
after each day's slaughtering each part is cleansed and disinfected 
under the supervision of the inspectors. 

The following plan is carried out in the inspection of the ani- 
mals : 

Each morning, from nine to ten, the horses to be slaughtered 
are mustered for inspection, their breed and nationality, and all 
other results of an external examination, entered in the appropriate 
book. To this end notice is first taken of the external appearance 
of the animal, and then its temperature is carefully noted, to ascer- 
tain that the animal is absolutely without fever. On completion of 
this examination, the character of the respiratory phenomena, the 
visible mucosae, the lymphatics and glands, the cough, etc. ; only 

* " Mittheil. aus der Praxis, 18V7-"78," p. 97. 



158 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

when all this is completed is the official permission to slaughter 
given. It is self-evident that only horses suitable for slaughter 
are brought forward for inspection, and not such as are hastily 
brought in. If, in a given animal, any suspicious phenomena are 
observed, which under other circumstances would scarcely be taken 
into consideration, a definite opinion as to its suitableness for • food 
is withheld until the animal is slaughtered and dressed, which is 
done under the supervision of the inspector. 

If a horse is found suitable for the purpose, it is at once slaugh- 
tered, otherwise its slaughter is peremptorily forbidden. The latter 
takes place in all infectious or feverish diseases, in emaciation, in 
all cachectic conditions, and in all animals having suppurating 
wounds. Animals not suffering from infectious diseases are al- 
lowed to be killed for knackers' purposes, a special certificate being 
filled out for this purpose. Horses, in which symptoms are observed 
suspicious of glanders, are either consigned to the quarantine sta- 
tion until a telegram is sent to the knacker, or are given back to 
the seller (of the horses), when due notice, by telegraph, is at once 
given to the proper veterinary police authorities. 

To the honor of the horse-butchers, it should be mentioned that 
this seldom occurs ; on the contrary, good horses are generally 
bought for this purpose, the butchers often making journeys of one 
hundred to one hundred and fifty miles to procure them, often buy- 
ing from breeders young horses which from deformities or other 
reasons are not considered suitable for rearing. They often pay 
thirty or forty dollars for such horses, which makes evident the 
value of the business of horse-slaughtering to the community ; for 
not only is a cheaper article of food, of good quality, offered to the 
people, but in case of a broken leg, or other misfortune, rendering 
a horse unsuitable for the work required of it, the owner frequently 
receives money enough to supply him with an animal suitable to his 
purposes ; at least he does not suffer a dead loss, as is at present the 
case in this country, and frequently lame animals are thus relieved 
from torture, to the material benefit of the owner. In Yienna, sim- 
ilar conditions to those in Germany prevail, and the inspection and 
regulation of the traffic are carried on with the greatest circumspec- 
tion. 

The inspection which is exacted at the horse-slaughtering estab- 
lishments should be extended to those where other animals are 
slaughtered. 

Aside from the great benefit which the poorer classes of the 
community derive from having a cheaper meat than beef for food, 



THE HORSE. 159 

is the great saving of material. Many horses are each year killed 
and sent to the knackers which, were hippophagy a custom in this 
country, would bring to the owners money enough to buy animals 
suitable for certain work. Horses condemned to death on account 
of broken limbs would not then become a dead loss to owners, but 
would bring from forty to sixty dollars for food-purposes. Also, 
from a humanitarian point of view, the question is deserving of con- 
sideration. Many a person has an old horse which years have ren- 
dered unsuitable for working purposes, yet the owner's circumstances 
will not permit the killing of the animal. Were it the custom 
to consume horse-meat, such animals could be very easily brought to 
a fairly fat condition, and at small expense, thus bringing far more 
money to the owner, from the shambles, than could possibly be their 
worth from a working point of view. 

Glanders. 

French, Morve / German, Rotz. 

History. — Williams says glanders was described by Aristotle, 
which is an error ; in Aubert's and Wimmer's German translation 
of his " Natural History " with the original text, it says : " The ass 
— but not the horse — suffers especially from one disease, which is 
known as ' malis.' It at first attacks the head, a viscid yellow slime 
running from the nostrils ; when the disease extends to the lungs it 
is deadly, but when limited to the head it is not so." 

It is impossible to see how any one can affirm the above to be 
a description of glanders, for it is equally applicable to strangles, 
especially when complicated with malarial pneumonia, commonly 
called influenza, the proper name of which should be pneumo-pleuro- 
enteritis equinee infectiosum. 

The first writer of antiquity to describe anything like glanders 
was undoubtedly Apsyrtus, who lived in the fourth century a. d. 
He united under the name of " fiaXfc" several dangerous diseases, 
while he describes farcy as elephantiasis. Yegetius followed in the 
same direction in the next century. 

Long before the disease was known to be transmissible to man, 
it derived a certain pathological interest from the assumption that 
it was a cause of syphilis in man, due to improper cohabitation 
with mares. This idea seems to have sprung from the coeval out- 
break of glanders among the horses, and syphilis among the soldiers, 
at the famous siege of Naples in the sixteenth century. Syphilis is 
not inoculable in animals. 



160 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Rufus (thirteenth century) gave a very fair description of the 
symptoms of the disease; he declared for its contagiousness, but 
considered it to occur in all manner of ways. 

Ruini (fifteenth century) held the same opinion. Winter von 
Adlers Flugel, a quaint German author of the sixteenth century, 
had many odd ideas of the nature of the disease. He describes it 
as occurring in two forms : the one known as " white " or stone- 
glanders, which is curable in the early stages ; and the other called 
"yellow," and which gives forth an offensive odor, and is incurable. 
According to him, the symptoms of glanders are : 

1. The horse appears as if suffering for breath when ridden hard 
and stopped suddenly, a point which has some practical diagnostic 
value. 

2. The material which flows from the nose sinks to the bottom 
of a vessel when filled with water. This idea is even asserted to 
have diagnostic value by modern writers. Ditmar's report on gland- 
ers, in the report of the United States Agricultural Department, 
1878, says " it has some value." 

3. The flow is constant. 

4. If the discharge is white and odorless, it is " stone-glanders." 

5. If yellow, reddish, or mixed with blood, the case is incurable. 

6. Such horses often have a " rotten moisture " coming from the 
mouth. 

7. When given water, a profuse discharge is to be seen issuing 
from the mouth and nostrils. 

8. The ears and head droop. 

9. Difficult respiration. 

10. Cough, and have tueked-up flanks. 

11. The nostrils are cold. 

12. Appetite is poor. 

13. Emaciated and lazy. 

14. The mane falls out. 

15. Such horses have an offensive odor. 
The disease occurs in three ways : 

1. The discharge comes from the brain. 

2. The animal has chronic disease of the throat. 

3. One horse can infect others. 

When the discharge comes from the brain, it is due to a super- 
fluous amount of fluid in that organ, which causes corruption. 

Chronic pharyngitis often causes the disease. 

From the latter part of the last century there has always been an 
active controversy as to the genesis of glanders : two schools have 



THE HORSE. 161 

existed, the one affirming it to be of a purely contagious character ; 
the other admitting its contagiousness, but affirming its genesis from 
all sorts of circumstances. These two opinions still oppose one 
another, though at present those affirming the abiogenetic or spon- 
taneous generation of glanders are becoming less and less. In 
France, even to this day, there may be found many advocates for 
the spontaneous generation of glanders, while in times past many 
asserted the non-contagiosity of the disease. This was essentially 
due to the teaching of Bourgelat and the Alfort school ; while the 
Lyons school obstinately defended the contagiousness of the dis- 
ease. 

One of the most important French authors of the last century, 
and the first of this, and one who has exerted no mean influence 
upon veterinary literature, was Lafosse the younger, and it is both 
interesting and instructive to read what he has to say upon so im- 
portant a subject, particularly as he represents the most advanced 
veterinary thought of his period. 

In his " Cours d'Hippiatrique," Paris, 1772, Part II, p. 263, he 
says : " The ancient authors knew nothing more of the seat of 
glanders than they did of its treatment. Some of them looked upon 
it as seated in the head, others in the lungs, others in the kidneys, 
others in the stomach, and confounded the different kinds of dis- 
charge ; to all of which they have given the name of glanders." 

" To assume that glanders was seated in the lungs was pardon- 
able — 1. Because they have a communication with the nose. 2. 
Because a discharge from the lungs by means of the nose does take 
place (as in pneumonia). 3. Because the discharge from the lungs 
bears some resemblance to that from the pituitary membrane (the 
lining of nasal cavities). 4. Because glanders is often complicated 
with pneumonia, or, which is the same thing, the discharge from the 
pituitary membrane is often mixed with that from the lungs. The 
ancient veterinarians were less scrupulous in their researches than in 
naming maladies — they were deceived by appearances. They were 
in a good way, but erred in distinction. To assert that glanders 
is situated in the kidneys, spleen, liver, or in the brain, is contrary 
to the best teachings of ' hippotomie.' They utterly ignored the fact 
that there was no connection between these parts and the nose." 

It is evident that even this great luminary of our art knew very 
little himself about glanders, and that his knowledge of the seats of 
the peculiar products of glanders was equally as fallacious as that of 
the ancients whom he condemns. But we will let him speak for 
himself : 

n 



162 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

" I distinguisli glanders according to its nature ; as glanders 
properly speaking, and glanders improperly so called." 

" True glanders is the discharge which comes alone from the 
pituitary membrane. It is not proper to speak of any other form of 
glanders than this," 

" Every other disease than this is not glanders." 

1. " True glanders maybe distinguished as simple and complex." 

2. As primitive and secondary. 

3. As initiative, as confirmed, and as inveterate glanders. 
Simple glanders is that which comes from the pituitary mem- 
brane. 

Complex glanders is that which comes from the same, and the 
trachea or the lungs at the same time. 

Primitive glanders comes independent of all other complications. 

Secondary glanders is that which follows on other diseases. 

As to its cause, Lafosse takes a most sensible position when he 
says : " The primary causes of glanders are not known. Some per- 
sons think that it is due to some acrid and acid material." 

The ens of the disease is to be sought in an inflammation of the 
glands of the pituitary membrane which produces the discharge. 

He considered glanders curable in its early stages, which should 
be treated after the manner of all inflammations. When the dis- 
ease had become chronic it was incurable. 

So much for the ancient authors. 

Of modern English authors, Fleming and Williams are the best 
known. 

In his " Veterinary Police," Fleming speaks of glanders " as a 
special diathesis peculiar to the equine species." 

Glanders is not a "diathesis." Diathesis is from the Greek 
Tidrjiii — to dispose • and the word means a peculiar condition of an 
organism, predisposing it to certain diseases ; as scrofula disposes to 
tuberculosis. We may speak of a glanders dyscrasia. It can not 
logically be applied to that peculiarity of the different animal spe- 
cies by which certain diseases originate in them primarily, or only 
in them. We can not speak of a measles diathesis, or a rinderpest 
diathesis, any more than a glanders diathesis. 

A diathesis is something inherited or produced. It is a weak- 
ness causing a tendency to secondary complications. 

Fleming says again, " It has been grouped with that class of dis- 
eases termed ' grannlomes,' and defined as a malady having a tend- 
ency to the formation of granular cells and destructive processes." 

Here we see another error, which, had onr author been person- 



THE HORSE. 163 

ally acquainted with the pathological processes of glanders, he could 
not have fallen into. 

Glanders is not characterized by destructive processes, as we 
understand them in pathology. 

In general, the processes of glanders have more of a formative 
than destructive character. The tubercles of glanders seldom form 
secondary tubercles in the immediate vicinity, but are generally iso- 
lated neoplastic growths. Even in the mucous membrane of the 
nose, the destructive processes are far exceeded by the formative, 
and the permanent cicatrization of the ulcers of glanders is no rare 
occurrence. 

" Acute glanders has been occasionally supposed to be merely 
the expression of purulent infection in the equine species, from 
the frequency with which it has been observed to follow severe 
operations, purulent fevers, or inflamed blood-vessels." 

Glanders is in no sense of the word a purulent infection, and 
when it appears under any of the above circumstances it was either 
present in a latent form anticipatory to their occurrence, and they 
acted as the causa sufficiens to the visible outbreak of the disease, 
or the animal acquired it after either of the above conditions were 
produced. 

" The highest Continental authorities, and those who have most 
attentively studied the etiology of the affection, are absolutely unani- 
mous in their opinion as to its being at times directly developed 
and without contagion having anything to do with it." 

It is surprising that a man of Mr. Fleming's erudition could write 
such as the above, for, in 1868, long before his book appeared 
Gerlach, no second-rate authority, had come out absolutely for the 
strictly contagious nature of glanders ; and his opinion had been 
adopted by the most eminent Germans at the time of Mr. Fleming's 
publication. 

An equally fallacious opinion is, that " it appears among horses 
when unduly exposed, poorly fed or watered, etc., as in the army 
at times, or where hygienic measures are neglected, and the laws of 
health ignored ; or in large towns, or in large establishments, if the 
horses are suddenly called upon to undergo severe exertion during 
bad weather and upon an insufficient allowance of food or forage 
of an unsuitable character." 

Were this so, then nearly, if not more than, half of the work- 
horses among the poorer class of horse-owners would have the dis- 
ease. Neither faulty ventilation nor the most arrogantly absurd non- 
hygienic condition can ever produce of itself, or themselves, glanders. 



j[64 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

"Within the last year Mr. Fleming has given up all the above 
views, and joined with emphasis the contagionistic party. 

"Williams says : " The remote causes of glanders, though not 
yet clearly understood, are often found to arise from many debilitat- 
ing influences, such as old age, bad food, overwork, exhausting dis- 
eases and general bad management ; from specific miasmatic or 
animal poisons, such as those generated in localities where large 
numbers of horses are congregated together, even where the stables 
are well ventilated, lighted, drained, and the animal well attended 
to in every way, but more particularly where the contrary is the 
case." 

Nearly all veterinary authors seem still to adhere to this opinion, 
but Eoell has come out a specific contagionist in the last edition of 
his " Special Pathology." 

Fleming quotes, in proof of the theory of spontaneous generation 
of glanders (spontaneous means the development of something out 
of nothing), the well-known extension of glanders among horses of 
armies during campaigns, as illustrated by the late Franco-German 
"War, and other such experiences. 

It would seem as if the whole veterinary profession had never 
had eyes or brains, or else this manner of extension would never re- 
quire the theory of spontaneous generation to support it. One would 
think that pulmonary and constitutional glanders was as much a 
myth to the veterinarians of the day as it was to Lafosse at the 
end of the last century, who ridiculed any form of true glanders 
other than nasal. 

Lesering * gives a case illustrating the ease with which glanders 
can occur among army-horses, and still the cause be unsuspected. 
I will give it as nearly as possible in his own words : 

"When glanders occurs more frequently in times of war or 
mobilization of the army, the explanation is to be easily found in 
the fact that great numbers of horses are centered upon a small ex- 
tent of territory, and the opportunity to infection greatly increased 
thereby." 

" This assertion is amply illustrated by a personal experience of 
my own. In Prussia, where there is no want of mobilizing the 
forces, statistics have proved that after such occasions glanders ac- 
quires a shocking extension among the horses. The open nature of 
these manoeuvres, as well as the known care and careful revision to 
which in the Prussian army horses are subjected, make it absolutely 
impossible that undue labor, bad feed, etc., should have any influence 
* " Bericht a. d. Yet. Wesen im Sachsen," 1862. 



THE HORSE. 165 

on these eruptions. In such manoeuvres, I once had occasion to re- 
view some one hundred horses that were turned loose into a riding- 
place for the night, and ran about among each other 'pell-mell.' 
Of the one hundred, seven were found having glanders. How 
many of the balance, the further life of which I could not follow, 
could also become infected \ How different would be the ideas of 
another veterinarian who should examine the balance of these ani- 
mals after the manoeuvres were over ! What cause could he sur- 
mise for their infection other than the vicissitudes of the exercises, 
unless he were a contagionist % " 

But the utter ridiculousness of the spontaneous-generation the- 
ory — the bad air, bad hygiene, and composite evil theories — finds 
an easy explanation when we come to study the peculiarly in- 
sidious nature of pulmonary glanders, which often leads to years 
of support of a contagious center, without even exciting the sus- 
picion of any one, especially in a country like ours, where the 
average animal practitioners — I will not call them veterinarians — 
know less than nothing of the principles or practice of veterinary 
science. 

The very insidious nature of pulmonary glanders, when the spe- 
cific processes of the disease are so deeply seated as to be beyond 
our positive recognition, is very nicely illustrated by the following 
cases, which could be easily enough augmented by reference to 
veterinary literature : 

Case I. — Chronic Glanders in the Horse. — " A ten-year-old 
mare was brought to the Munich school by its owner on the 10th 
of April, 1876, which had been suffering for several weeks with a 
nasal discharge, accompanied by some general disturbance. 

Status prcesens. — Examination on seeing the animal : Ko fever; 
the left intermaxillary gland swollen, with a node in it as large as a 
hazel-nut ; the right less swollen ; not sensitive to touch ; the over- 
lying cutis not attached ; a profuse muco-purulent discharge from 
left nostril ; the mucosa, so far as visible, diffusely hyperaemic, 
swollen ; some serous secretion from the right nostril ; the mucosa 
less red than that of the left side ; an occasional dry cough." * 

Such a condition as the above, while it lacks all positive symp- 
toms of glanders, justifies the strongest suspicion that such is the 
case ; said suspicion, and a consequential police supervision of the 
horse, must exist, either until the symptoms entirely disappear, or 
the diagnosis is confirmed in some other way. 

The owner of this horse, and the veterinarian who attended to 

* " Deutsche Zeitschrift f iir Thiermedicin," Erstes Supplement, 18?8. 



IQQ THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

his stable, both declared this and all the horses in the stable free 
from any suspicion of glanders. 

Three inoculative experiments were made with the nasal dis- 
charge, by saturating threads in the same, and drawing the latter 
through the cutis of a live rabbit's ear. All three gave negative 
results. 

Haubner (of Dresden) introduced the (at times valuable) idea 
of trepanning the sinuses of the head in case glanders is suspected, 
which will frequently lead to the discovery of the disease. 

It was done in this case this ; " the sinus Highmori contained a 
moderate amount of muco-purulent secretion, the mucosa of both 
divisions was somewhat thickened, hypersemic, and had a tense but 
perfectly smooth feeling. Not a single sign of unevenness could 
he distinguished. All this seemed to justify the conjecture that in 
this case we had only to do with a case of chronic catarrh of the 
sinuses of the head." 

The cavity was treated by injection of a two-per-cent carbolic- 
acid solution twice a day ; the same flowing out of the left nostril 
indicated that the opening was still free. 

On the day following the operation a rise in temperature took 
place, 39-1° C. ; pulse 56, which again disappeared in time. 

" From the seventh to the tenth day after trepanning the head 
the intermaxillary glands became very much swollen, but neither 
abscess formation nor resolution in any degree took place." 

"On the 14th of May the temperature again increased and 
continued augmented until the animal was killed. In the mean time 
the trepan-wound healed completely, and was entirely closed on the 
22d of May." 

Autopsy by Bollinger, May 28th : 

"Extensive nasal and pulmonary glanders. In the left sinus 
Highmori (a cavity of the head) a considerable quantity of yellow- 
ish, thick, viscid, purulent material ; the mucosa having a swollen, 
uneven nature, clouded with occasional hard neoplasmata (nodes) 
projecting above its surface ; the infiltration common to glanders to 
be seen at places. The mucosa of the sinus Highmori dextra 
(right cavity of skull) presented nothing abnormal, aside from a 
slight catarrhal swelling." 

In the above, we see that all diagnostic assistance failed to dis- 
cover the disease. Even the trepan-wound healed normally, and 
not with long-continued ulceration, as is frequently the case in 
glanders, and yet the disease was present. 

We have seen that three inoculative experiments with the dis- 



THE HORSE. 167 

charge from the left nostril gave negative results. Three others 
made in the same manner with thread saturated with material 
directly from the ulcerated surface of the supernasal parts, gave 
positive results. 

This shows that even inoculative experiments are not always 
to be depended upon. 

Case II. — Chronic Glanders. — This case is still more interesting 
and has much more practical value, as it illustrates perfectly how 
one horse can be the means of infecting others, and yet not excite 
attention to itself for a long time. This horse had been in the pos- 
session of its owner for over two years anterior to the time it was 
brought to the Munich clinic ; two years oefore this time glanders 
had appeared in the man's stables, and one horse was killed on that 
account, the others being quarantined. These quarantined animals 
— among them was a somewhat wind-broken but otherwise appar- 
ently healthy work-horse — were declared to be free from the dis- 
ease at the expiration of the time fixed by law. No other horse 
was bought in the mean time to take the place of the one killed. 

In February, 1878, the mate of the above-mentioned wind-broken 
horse died from pneumonia, but at the autopsy it was found to be 
diseased with chronic glanders. 

" Upon this an active veterinary inspection of the animals in the 
stable again took place. The wind-broken horse — which had a very 
insignificant swelling of the left intermaxillary gland, and a slight 
pellucid, viscid nasal discharge — was isolated from the others. As, 
however, after six weeks' careful quarantine, no further symptoms 
appeared among the other horses, they were declared free, the above- 
mentioned horse still being quarantined." * 

Friedberger, who makes the report, had this horse a long time 
under observation ; he says as follows : " Status prcesens. The highly 
wind-broken horse was in a comparatively good condition, f everless, 
good appetite and spirit ; but the hair did not have the same luster 
as that of the other horses in the stable. The left intermaxillary 
glands were somewhat swollen, attached but slightly to surrounding 
tissues, and evinced no tenderness on pressure. From both nostrils 
flowed a clear, viscid fluid, the discharge not being at all constant 
in quantity, but in general more profuse from the left than right. 
Nothing suspicious could be seen in the nose by the ordinary method 
of examination." 

" The first diagnostic aid to which I resorted was the endeavor 

* Ibid., Zweites Supplement, 1879. 



163 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

to produce self-infection, by eroding the nasal mucosa so that the 
discharge would necessarily now over the wounded surface. A 
completely negative result followed. 

" The nasal discharge was very variable, being on some days 
scarcely visible, and on others very profuse ; at times it assumed a 
thick, muco-purulent character." 

" On the 7th of May (1878), I succeeded (by means of Gunther's 
nasal speculum) in discovering a radiating cicatrix on the septum 
in the superior parts of left nostril, which occasioned me to request 
the owner to give it over to the school for further observation and 
eventual slaughter." 

" Numerous attempts at self -inoculation were made, but were en- 
tirely unsuccessful, but the constant presence of the cicatricial forma- 
tions in the nasal membranes permitted an unquestionable diagnosis, 
so that the animal was killed on the 23d of May, 1878." 

Autopsy {Bollinger). — " Chronic glanders of the nasal cavities, 
the superior part of the sinus sinistra marred with large stellate cica- 
trices ; perforation of the septum, cicatrices and ulcers of the mu- 
cosa, and miliary tubercles in the moderately swollen glands." 

" Glanders of the larynx, trachea, bronchial tubes, bronchiec- 
tasis ; glanders of both lungs, cicatricial atrophy of left lung." 

" The nature of the pathological conditions makes it evident that 
they had been present for a very long time, the exact period not 
being ascertainable, but, as is shown, for over two years, during 
which time this non-suspected animal had been the means of causing 
the disease in others." 

Having very cursorily looked over the views of some of the rep- 
resentative authors of veterinary medicine as to the nature of gland- 
ers, it becomes us to endeavor to define our own ideas. 

Glanders is, then, a peculiar infectio-contagious disease, which 
occurs protopathically only in the horse ; the original cause of 
which is unknown and lost in history, but which, in our day, owes 
its genesis entirely to contagion. 

Spontaneous generation of glanders is for us an absurdity ; even 
so is the so-called metamorphosis or degeneration of other diseases, 
such as strangles, influenza, diabetes, or marasmus — a condition — 
into it ; equally absurd are the assertions of authors, that bad hygi- 
enic influences, of whatever kind or nature, overwork, etc., can 
directly cause the development of the disease. 

"Were this so, we should have glanders constantly raging in cer- 
tain districts, as an en- or epi-zootic disease, which is not ever the 
case. 



THE HORSE. 169 

Transmission to other Species of Animal Life. 

Glanders also occurs in the ass and mule, but I am inclined to 
the opinion that it is originally an equine disease, and that when it 
attacks these other solipeds, it is due to infection from, or by means 
of, a diseased horse. 

It is also transmissible to man and all the domestic animals, ex- 
cept to cattle. 

Sheep are especially susceptible to infection. Goats have been 
known to acquire the disease when kept in the same stable with 
diseased horses. The disease has been observed, or intentionally 
produced, in dogs, cats, prairie-dogs, white bears, lions, mice, 
Guinea-pigs, rabbits, and, according to Gerlach and Spinola, the hog 
also, although no generalization of the disease appeared to take place 
in them. 

Geographical Distribution. 

Glanders is fast becoming a regular cosmopolite. "With the ex- 
tension of civilization, diseases of man and animals follow a similar 
course. If the march of empire makes its way westward, disease 
accompanies it. While nearly all the contagious diseases of man 
and animals are lost in history — that is, come to us with the earliest 
historical records — still, during this period, we can follow their 
westward movement along with the tide of Aryan civilization. 

In civilized lands the extension of all contagious diseases bears 
direct relation to the intelligence of the government in taking 
means to suppress them, and the frequency and ease of travel and 
intercourse. 

This is naturally limited, in one way or another, by the peculiar 
characteristics of the inficiens (cause) in each disease. 

Glanders has followed the same course. At one time it was said 
not to prevail in hot climates, but we now know that it has acquired 
an alarming extension, and frequently breaks out at the different 
cavalry stations of the British forces in India and other tropical 
countries. 

Where there is little or no intercourse with other parts, there is 
little or no glanders, as in Iceland and other northern countries. 

This led to the assumption that it did not thrive in such a cli- 
mate, and that it steadily increased as we proceeded from the north 
to the south, until we arrived at tropical limits. 

This is all wrong ; the occasions to infection — with lack of sani- 
tary police — being given, glanders will appear as frequently in one 
climate as another. 



170 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

"We have said that intercourse had much to do with the increased 
extension which glanders may acquire — this is well illustrated by 
the experiences of different wars. In our own country, glanders 
has acquired much more prominence since the war. In consequence 
of the late Franco-German War, the percentage of glanders among 
the horses of Prussia increased (reported cases) from 959 cases for 
1869-70 and 996 for 1870-'71 to 1,729 for 1871-72 and 2,058 for 
1873-'74. 

In France, during the anti-contagionistic influence of the Alfort 
school, especially of Dupuy and Bouley, the one looking upon the 
disease as tuberculosis, the other as a form of pyaemia, and defend- 
ing these absurdities with all partisan bitterness, the disease ac- 
quired a perfectly frightful extension, so that in a mortality of 75 
per thousand among the army-horses, an average of 35 was due to 
glanders. 

As the contagionistic idea began to gain ground, to the honor of 
the Lyons school it always adopted this side of the question ; the 
yearly average slowly but steadily diminished: the deaths falling 
from 75 to 44*5 per thousand, and the cases of glanders from 35 to 
20-5 per thousand horses. While in 1846 the French army lost 4*7 
per cent of its horses from glanders, the mortality in 1864 was only 
0-9 per cent from the same cause. 

A most remarkable and extensive eruption of glanders occurred 
at the royal stud of Mezohogyrs, Hungary, between the years 1809 
and 1816, nearly 20,000 horses perishing. In 1812 alone 12,000 
perished. This was all due to the disease not being looked upon as 
contagious, but a simple dyscrasia, in accordance with the humero- 
pathological tendency of the veterinary medicine of the time. 

In London, and the large English cities, glanders is reported to 
be steadily on the increase. 

It is so also in this country, without any effective measures being 
taken to prevent it. 

In Massachusetts we have a useless institution, which bears the 
name of " Cattle Commission," and is supposed to look after gland- 
ers, but in all truth it looks after nothing, and investigates nothing, 
except what it finds by the merest accident, or is reported to it by 
others. 

Mr. Charles P. Lyman, formerly veterinary surgeon at Springfield, 
Massachusetts, writes me as follows : 

" Your letter is received, and, although I fear that I can not give 
you the data as minutely as you wish, yet I will do my best to give 
the outlines of the outbreak of glanders which we had here during 



THE HORSE. 171 

the past year. The first horse that can properly be said to belong to 
the outbreak was owned by an express company here, and, with the 
others of the company, was kept in a livery-stable. This horse was 
taken by a quack to treat, upon the ' no cure no pay ' principle ; the 
man promising to be able to bring about the result in a few days. 
It so happened that I was called into the same stable to see another 
horse, and while there one of the grooms, who had recognized the 
disease, called my attention to this horse. I examined the horse, 
and told the owner of the stable that he should have him removed. 
My advice was not heeded, however, and the animal was allowed to 
linger along until it died in its box. After this had taken place, 
the stable was subjected to disinfection, but it was too late, for four 
other horses, which had stood near the stall of that first named, were 
killed on account of glanders. It is perhaps worthy of mention, for 
it shows the absolute ignorance of Dr. Quack No. 1, that upon the 
morning that the horse of the express company died, when Dr. Q. 
came to make his usual morning call — the horse had already been 
drawn away to the knackers, the doctor (?) not knowing that he was 
dead — a hostler remarked to him that ' they had taken the horse out 
for a little ' ; to which the doctor (?) answered, ' I do not think it will 
hurt him any. I was going to tell them that they might put him to 
work to-day.' On the 8th of March I was called to look at a horse 

belonging to Messrs. , whose store was next to the office of the 

express company, but whose horse was kept at a different stable. 
This horse, on the night when I first saw him, seemed to have an 
attack of acute pleuro-pneumonia— remember, I had myself as yet 
had no case of glanders — however, glanders unmistakably developed 
itself in the next thirty-six hours, and the horse was killed. Follow- 
ing this was a roan horse in the same stable in which I diagnosed 
farcy, and ordered isolation. The owner would not believe the 
fact, at least he said he did not, and called in the services of another 
Dr. Quack, who said, ' The horse must have fallen through some 
hole in the floor and made his leg sore.' This horse was then 
sold to a Frenchman for twenty-five dollars, Quack ~No. 2 treat- 
ing him for a while, and I lost sight of him, to follow him up about 
two months later, when I was called in by a woman to see a horse 
in a different part of the city, and found the same horse, in a mori- 
bund condition from glanders. It was immediately killed and 
taken away. The husband of the woman had bought this horse of 
the above-mentioned Frenchman for thirty-five dollars some four 
weeks previously, with the assurance that he had fallen through a 
floor, and that that was all the trouble with him. At my instiga- 



172 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

tion suit was threatened, and the money recovered without the case 
coming into court. In the mean time four or five other horses that 
had been in the same stable with the second horse were condemned 
and killed, among them a fine mare worth some five hundred dol- 
lars. In these cases, all the horses had stood upon the same side of 
the stable with horse No. 2. After this experience the other horses 
were all removed from the stable, which was most carefully cleansed 
and disinfected, and allowed to stand empty three or four weeks. 
Since then no new cases have occurred at this stable. During 
this time the disease had become well dispersed around the city, 
and isolated cases were a frequent occurrence, the days being rare 
in which we were not compelled to condemn one or more of these 
animals. There was no great amount of trouble in getting most of 
the owners to consent to the destruction of the diseased horses, but 
a few would not consent, and would quietly sell the horses, so that 
I generally lost sight of them, as they were taken over into Connecti- 
cut, and there disposed of. The first one for which I was compelled 
to call in the services of the State Commissioners was owned in 
Chicopee, Massachusetts, and after being condemned and the board 
of selectmen notified by me, the horse was turned loose in the 
streets, it being summer, to wander about at will ; this fact coming 
to my knowledge, I decided to call in the commissioners. The 
horse was killed, but not before four or five others had contracted 
the disease from him, which were also killed. Another center of 
infection had in the mean time come into existence at the southern 
part of Springfield, due either to the carelessness or ignorance of 
the previously mentioned Quack No. 1, who had been called upon 
to see a sick horse at a brick-yard ; this person treated the horse, 
and he finally died in a small stable containing nine other horses. 
A few days subsequent to the death of this horse, a second animal 
sickened, and my services were requested ; the horse appeared as if 
it had some foreign substance in his windpipe, owing to a drench 
which had been given it, and, while I was debating what to do with 
him, the owner said there was another sick horse in the stable, that 
I might look at before departure, remarking, ' Dr. Quack says it 
has strained its leg.' I found it to be another good case of farcy, 
which let in light upon the sickness of the other horse. I ordered 
the horses removed from the stable, and to be separated, the stable 
at the same time to be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. Five 
of these horses died of glanders. In all, from March 8, 1878, to 
March 19, 1879, fifty-six horses have been killed on account of 
glanders, which is a large number for a small city like ours. It is 



THE HORSE. 173 

but natural to assume that many cases escaped my observation, and 
you can well realize the difficulties which a person without the 
proper authority meets with. Although after June 1, 1879, I had 
every assistance which the mayor, Mr. Powers, and the city solici- 
tor could give me, the State law seemed so vague to him, that he 
did not feel like doing what he would have liked to do, or what 
seemed necessary in the matter. It is to be hoped that we shall 
soon have some better legislation with reference to these matters. 
Foremost, it should be some one's business to look up and attend to 
these matters exclusively. A competent veterinarian should at least 
have an active connection with every Board of Health in the State, 
and one also with the State Board. These matters are too in- 
timately connected with the public health to have them governed 
by separate boards. We have not yet been able to completely erad- 
icate the disease." 

The following letter was kindly furnished me by Mr. Firth, 
Secretary of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals : 

Dear Sie : In response to your request to be furnished with a 
report of the number of farcied and glandered horses coming to 
the notice of the society the past two years, I herewith transmit 
the same, as follows, viz. : 

Farcied horses 2 

Glandered 27 

of which number twenty-four were killed at once, three were isolated 
by the health authorities (and, as we were informed, subsequently 
destroyed), while the final disposition of the remainder was never 
known to us. And in this connection permit me to say that the 
earliest operations of the society (in the year 1868) developed the 
frequent presence, in public places, of infected animals, and also 
the not unfrequent complaints at our office of men who had been 
duped into their purchase; and not only were the diseased ani- 
mals destroyed, but in some instances others to whom they had 
communicated the disease. 

The growing necessity for such legislation as would make it the 
especial duty of local boards of health to take cognizance of such 
cases, led the society and the Board of Health of this city to present 
to the Legislature of 1878 the draft of a bill that, it was felt, would 
effectually aid in stamping out the disease. The result was the 
passage of chapter 24 of the acts of that year (amended in chapters 
160 and 178 of the acts of 1879). 



174 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

It is well known to all competent authority, and it was in evi- 
dence before the legislative committee, to whom the matter of a 
statute was referred, that the most dangerous are the most obscure 
cases, and, inasmuch as the general condition of an animal under 
those circumstances is not such as to render him unfit for labor, it 
is not reached by the particular statute (chapter 344, acts of 1869) 
our society seeks to enforce ; yet, on the other hand, the presence 
of such an animal in a public place is dangerous, and in such cases 
we make it our duty to at once bring the matter to the attention of 
the health boards. 

We feel the subject to be all-important, and trust we have been 
instrumental in securing a measure of protection both to animals 
and their owners. 

Yery respectfully yours, 

Charles A. Currier, 

Special Agent of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals. 

I have made exertions to get reliable information from other 
quarters, but only received the two following letters in reply, for 
which I desire to publicly thank the authors. 

My friend and colleague, Dr. Liautard, of the American Veteri- 
nary College in New York city, writes : 

" You ask me for a letter with regard to the extension of 
glanders in New York city and State. "With reference to the lat- 
ter, I have but little to say, as my experience is entirely limited to 
the city of New York. 

" From my connection with the city Board of Health, and the 
American Veterinary College, I have been enabled to observe, to 
no inconsiderable degree, the extent to which this disease prevails 
in our metropolis. Although it has found a powerful enemy in 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I am well 
satisfied that it exists in our private and public stables, and can be 
seen traveling upon our streets every day in the year. 

" In connection with my duties at the college, I have had occa- 
sion to condemn quite a number of horses brought to our free 
clinics. In 1876 I condemned 40 horses ; in 1877, 49 ; in 1878, 62 ; 
and from January 1 to March 1, 1879, 49. This does not include 
animals found by me in my private practice. 

" But the most important of all my observations with regard to 
glanders, the one which has no equal in all my experience, is that 
of the summer of 1877. I was at that time requested by the Board 



THE IIORSE. 175 

of Health to inspect the different large public stables of the city in 
relation to glanders, as the disease had become so prevalent as to 
cause numerous complaints to be made. At the same time I was 
requested by the president of one of our large horse-railroad com- 
panies to call on him. Upon visiting him, I examined and con- 
demned in one day thirty-six horses, and, after impressing upon him 
the dangers to which the entire stock of the company were exposed, 
I was authorized to extirpate the disease from their stables. I in- 
spected the entire stock (over twelve hundred horses) weekly, then 
semi-monthly, then every three months, until, after over nine months 
of hard work, I finished my task, not having found any more gland- 
ered horses in my last three visits. The company lost by this pro- 
cedure some three hundred horses. 

" On retiring from duty, I warned the president of the danger 
that existed of the disease again appearing, and endeavored to impress 
upon him the necessity of professional inspection of the entire stock 
weekly, or at least semi-monthly, as is done in the large Continental 
companies. Whether my advice was regarded or not, is shown by 
the fact that glanders again appeared, and is still existing in the 
same stables to quite a large extent. 

"Another company also requested my services. It had about 
nine hundred horses, and in about the same length of time, and 
after similar work, I condemned to death about one hundred horses. 
I also gave the same advice on this occasion which I had given to 
the first-named company, and it was followed to such an extent 
that I am not aware that there is a single case of glanders among 
the horses of this company to-day. 

" In another stable, which I visited by request of the Board of 
Health, where there were over two hundred horses, twenty-five of 
them were condemned at two visits. These animals were kept in 
the hospital of the stable, and were under the care of the so-called 
* doctor ' (!). I had no authority to subject the entire stock to revis- 
ion, but if I had, I am sure that the results would have been fully 
equal to those of the other examinations. I am perfectly sure that 
I could find numerous cases of glanders among the horses of this 
company to-day. 

" Is it not indeed surprising that such a condition of things should 
be allowed to exist ; and how can one comprehend that the president 
of a company could so overlook the interests of the stockholders as 
to allow so many diseased horses to remain among those of the com- 
pany, without continualty being on the watch to prevent such dis- 
asters ? Let us take, for example, the first case : 300 horses, valued 



176 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

at the lowest estimate at $125, amounts to $37,500. The same 
amount to replace those destroyed makes $,75,000. Add to this the 
loss by food, labor, the danger of infection to other horses, the costs 
of cleansing and disinfection, and $100,000 would not cover the loss 
to the company. In spite of all this, these companies still continue 
to employ as veterinary advisers men entirely ignorant of the phe- 
nomena of this disease, or, if they know them, men who are false 
to their duties to the public, by persisting in treating animals 
they refuse to condemn even with the most manifest symptoms of 
glanders. 

" Still at times an animal is recognized by one of these practi- 
tioners, but the symptoms are of a mild type, the animal is in good 
health and condition, it represents a certain sum of money : he al- 
lows it to be sold to some low dealer (if he does not recommend it), 
or perhaps to some countryman. In the first case the horse goes to 
some horse-market, and is sold again to some poor but licensed 
vender, cartman, or cheap livery-stable keeper, unless it happens to 
be seized by an agent of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals, who has it destroyed upon my certificate. In the sec- 
ond case the animal is taken across the river to Long Island or New 
Jersey, spreading the seeds of this loathsome disease wherever it 
goes. In the face of such evidence as this is it not high time that 
either our State authorities, or those in Washington, paid more atten- 
tion to the contagious diseases of animals, and enacted laws for the 
protection of our animal property, as well as human beings, from 
infection? Is it not high time that American veterinarians used 
their influence toward the establishment of a general sanitary vet- 
erinary system for the country, with its appropriate head in connec- 
tion with the National Board of Health at "Washington, looking 
toward the suppression and prevention of these damaging animal 
pests ? " 

Dr. Gadsden writes from Philadelphia thus : 

"Dear Sir: In answer to your inquiry respecting the preva- 
lence of glanders in this city and State, I am glad to inform you that 
disease is seldom met with now in this city. I can not answer for 
the State, but no doubt there are many cases that do not come under 
my notice. 

" I need not tell you that I have them destroyed as soon as pos- 
sible after examination. During the twelve years I have been in 
practice in this city, I think it is safe for me to say I have con- 
demned two hundred (200) horses with this loathsome disease and 



THE HORSE. 177 

had them destroyed, so yon will see I have not been idle. Abont six 
years ago I was called to one of our best horse-car stables, to ex- 
amine some ' sick ' horses that a quack was ' treating ' by contract 
(so much per year). I found several of them suffering from glanders 
in its worst form. I told the president of the company the conse- 
quences if he kept them longer in the stable ; he ordered me to pick 
out the diseased ones at once, and if I remember right we destroyed 
between forty and fifty of them in about two weeks. I have had 
that same unpleasant duty to perform at four other horse-car com- 
panies in this city ; the quacks used to treat them for ' distemper.' 
We have no special law on the subject. If I find any trouble about 
having the diseased horse destroyed, I call at the office of the Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and ask them to send an 
officer to look after the horse, and see that it is not worked (as that 
would be cruel), also to see that it is not kept near other horses (as 
that would be cruel to them) ; so you see it very soon answers the 
owner's purpose (pocket) to have it destroyed. 

" I have known of three men that died with this terrible dis- 
ease in this city from inoculation (through sores on their hands), 
while attending glandered horses and mules ; all of them suffered 
very much. I hope you will do what you can to teach the public 
the danger of this disease, as it is worse than this (so-called) pleuro- 
pneumonia in cattle, and that is bad enough." 

It is just the same in every State, and our national Government 
is as incompetent and culpably negligent as those of the States. 

Cattle commissions are unnecessary, and one-sided affairs. What 
we must have are boards of animal hygiene in each State. 

A great noise has been made about pleuro-pneumonia among 
our cattle. The Government and the cattle interest most emphati- 
cally denied that we had any, as they do now about porcine trichi- 
niasis ; but finally had to admit that we have a little of the former. 
We should never have heard of either of them, unless some one 
had felt his pockets touched. Then, like cowards, we sneaked be- 
hind a false assertion, and said, " We have not such things." But 
Europeans did not believe our assertion, and finally we retracted, 
and admitted that we have just a few cases of pleuro-pneumonia 
along our Atlantic seaboard. 

How is it with glanders ? 

Glanders has much in common with pleuro-pneumonia; it is 

even more stealthy in its progress. Should we, unfortunately (or 

fortunately, I should say), ship a few lots of horses with this disease 

to some European country, we should probably again have the 

12 



178 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

stereotyped denial on the part of the Government and the horse 
interests ; yet I venture to assert that there are to the thousand fifty 
per cent more glandered horses in this country than cattle having 
the contagious lung-plague, and that the former disease is extending 
with more rapidity among our equine than the latter among our 
bovine population. 

The government gives the people no means of knowing the 
facts from trustworthy statistics. The United States Agricultural 
Department of Statistics, with regard to animal diseases, is a dis- 
graceful farce. 

Etiology. 

In our remarks upon the views of different authors with regard 
to the nature of glanders, we have unavoidably touched upon their 
ideas as to its cause, which renders necessary some repetition in this 
place. 

"We have not time to discuss all these views in detail ; but we, 
as those before us, are all children of the period, and can not well 
separate ourselves from the opinions prevailing at the time ; yet we 
must, in all things, ever entertain a certain degree of skepticism : 
to doubt is the beginning of self-education. A person who has 
never doubted is an ignorant believer, and has no self-knowledge 
— a mere puppet, unfit to be a member of any profession. 

So in glanders, one party has looked upon it from the iatro- 
chemical stand-point, looking upon an abnormal degree of oxidation, 
or an undue degree of acidity of the blood as the cause ; others, 
of the humoral-pathological school, saw its origin in all sorts of 
dyscrasies — not diatheses, as Fleming has written — and even from 
our stand-point we can speak of glanders dyscrasia, but not in the 
way of humoral pathology, whereby the dyscrasia was the cause of 
glanders, but from the natural scientific sense, the dyscrasia being 
a part of the disease, the same as the neoplastic processes ; that is, 
the result of the action of the inficiens. Others saw in it a form of 
equine scrofulosis ; and still others looked upon it from the neuro- 
pathological stand-point ; while others saw in it a form of tuberculosis, 
and with the eruption of the pyaemia theory, we find it classed with 
that kind of diseases. Nearly all these different views led to the 
more or less strong opposition of the contagious nature of the dis- 
ease, and, as we have seen, to great losses on the part of the people. 

Is glanders pyaemia ? 

The whole theory of the autochtone development of glanders is 
more dependent upon a few experiments with pyaemia material 
than anything else. 



THE HORSE. 179 

Renault and Bouley injected pus into the jugular vein of a horse, 
supposed to be healthy. On the sixth day pustules were observed 
to develop in the nose, and soon afterward ulcers. Death resulted 
in eight days. The autopsy gave numerous tubercles in the lungs, 
and ulcers of the nasal mucosa. A positive result followed the re- 
inoculation of another horse, with nasal discharge from this one. 
Laisne reports a similar result. Others report the same, but Yines 
exceeds all in absurdity, when he asserts that he produced glanders 
by means of injections of vitriol into the trachea, and other such 
procedures. 

These experiments are openly opposed by others in the same 
direction, and are not conformable to the results of pathological 
experiments in our day. In fact, it should be well known that the 
introduction of pus into a jugular vein will lead to processes in 
the lungs which, taken by themselves, might lead one to suspect 
glanders. 

Furthermore, in old horses, nodulated bodies are frequently 
met with which the inexperienced might take for tubercles — such 
is the condition known as bronchitis nodosa. 

"Whether genuine tuberculosis occurs in the horse is an open 
question ! 

Lauret, Billroth, Guenther, Spinola, Gamgee, Lee, and others, 
have made numerous injection and other experiments, with both 
laudable and ichorous pus, but have in no case produced glanders. 

It will be observed that only in one case was glanders proved to 
exist by second inoculation, in Renault and Bouley's experiments. 
In all the others no case of proof, or secondary inoculation, is given. 

"Were glanders ever due to pyaemia, we should have far more 
proof of it than at present exists. 

That it could ever have been assumed to be generated in this 
way, must be sought in the hitherto all too much neglected fact 
of the long latency which the pulmonary form may have, extending 
over years without even a single detectable symptom of the real 
disease. A wound, a cold, undue exposure, or any of the causes 
hitherto looked upon as protopathic, may cause the acute eruption 
of the disease. 

The theory of the spontaneous generation of glanders again finds 
full contradiction in the observations of practical experience, made 
on islands distant from the mainland, and out of general communi- 
cation with it. 

Krabbe * reports that, on the Island of Bornholm, with over 

* "Deutsche Zeitschrift," i, p. 286, 1878. 



180 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

7,000 horses, the disease is unknown, and the same is true of Ice- 
land, with about 35,000 horses. 

No one would, I think, be bold enough to assert that these ani- 
mals are not as much subjected to the evil influences of exposure, 
poor feed, pneumonia, etc., as the horses of more favored climates. 

While we can not help expressing our surprise that authors of 
undoubted practical experience should still hold to the spontaneous 
generation of glanders, and give it up for nearly all other similar 
diseases, it is still more surprising that any person of sense can hold 
to the utterly illogical, metachemical, or degeneration theory by 
which one disease transforms itself into another, without the aid of 
cause. 

Such a thing is opposed to both common sense and experience. 
What, then, must we consider the cause of glanders ? In our day, 
contagion, and nothing else ! 

A specific but unknown inficiens enters the organism and pro- 
duces results, in general, only observed in this disease. 

In accordance with the best results of modern pathologists, we 
must assume this inficiens to be of an organic, formative nature ; that 
is, belonging to the bacterial world. Chauveau has looked upon pe- 
culiar cells as the etiological moment, but this is not in accordance 
with our present views, though in one sense, but not in his, the 
bacteria are cells. Frank has looked upon some chemical material 
as the inficiens, and has demonstrated that the nasal discharge and 
blood of glandered horses possessed catalytic action, and could trans- 
form peroxide of hydrogen into O and H 2 0. 

Hallier, Mueller, Semmer, Zurn, and others, have all described 
bacteria found in the blood and secretions. Schutz claims to have 
discovered, cultivated, and produced the disease by inoculating them. 
These germs must either act of themselves, which, from the nature 
of the disease, is scarcely probable, or, which is more likely to be 
true, by means of some irritants which they themselves produce by 
certain unknown metachemical processes. 

Such an irritant is absolutely necessary to explain the slowly- 
developing processes of chronic glanders — the (as we shall see) 
gradual complication of the stroma, or interstitial tissues of many of 
the most important organs. 

It is not in conformity with our knowledge of germ-life that 
they can directly act in this manner. Zurn * describes the bacteria 
of glanders as follows : " In the blood of horses diseased with gland- 
ers I have found micrococci, and strings of the same — streptococci — 

* " Pfianzlichen Parasiten," p. 375. 



THE HORSE. 181 

consisting of from four to eight single cells. The micrococci did 
not have a uniform size, yet they were always round, and had 
an average diameter of 0*0002 millimetres. I observed that they 
multiplied by fission. I saw these objects in warm blood taken di- 
rectly from the horse ; they were principally to be seen in and 
around the white blood-cells. The red cells also seemed to be in- 
vaded by them, but to a less degree. The smallest capillaries were 
often obstructed by colonies of micrococci." 

" In the diseased lymph-glands I also found great numbers of 
the same, and also staff-like bacteria — bacilli. They were either 
isolated or in joints of two or three members. Such objects were 
also present in the mucous lining of the cavities of the head." 

Whether these objects seen by Zurn have really any etiological 
connection with glanders is still an open question. Pure cultiva- 
tion, extended experiments, etc., can only finally discover the imme- 
diate inficiens. 

One must be careful not to attribute too much importance to 
micrococci or bacteria, found in any part of the nasal cavity or phar- 
ynx, or bodily cavities which connect with the open air ; for they 
are not to be considered of any diagnostic value, and their isolation 
is too difficult a task for our present means. 

The germs must be seen and collected elsewhere than here, or 
from open wounds, on account of these foreign admixtures — even 
though such material be highly infectious at the same time. 

The inficiens of glanders is both transportable — by that I mean 
suspendible in the expired air to a limited degree — and fixed ; that 
is, attachable to any foreign vehicle as a purveyor and supporter of 
infection. 

With relation to the inficiens being based upon the perspiration 
and expired atmosphere, we have the very illustrative experiments 
of Gerlach and Yiborg. 

In these, horses having glanders were driven in cold weather, so 
as to get into an active perspiration ; the steam arising from them, as 
well as the expired air, was caught in glass receivers prepared for 
the purpose, and allowed to condense. 

Healthy horses were then inoculated with this material, and the 
phenomena of glanders observed to develop. The expired air was 
found to be far more active than the transpiration from the cutis. 

These experiments go to prove two things : 

1. That the inficiens is transportable to a minor degree. 

2. That the inficiens must be of & formative nature. 

No other conclusion is possible ; for, in our studies on bacteria, 



182 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

we have already learned that neither gases nor chemicals have the 
power of multiplication within themselves ; yet even in this case, mul- 
tiplication of the inficiens must have taken place to have produced 
infection, for Gerlach says that " only some twenty drops of the 
condensed fluid was used for the inoculations." Yiborg, who lived 
early in the century, could not well have discovered form-elements 
in these fluids, and it is doubtful if the microscope which Gerlach 
used in 1868 was equal to'it. At least, he reports that none were 
to be seen, and concludes that the infectious elements exert a chemi- 
cal action, which was also Yirchow's opinion at that time. Nega- 
tive experiments (which, however, have always but little value in 
the face of positive, as the individual immunity peculiar to all spe- 
cies must always be taken into consideration) have been made by 
Hertwig, Regnault, and others, with reference to the expired air 
causing infection by means of the lungs. Diseased horses were 
caused to breathe into a canvas bag at one end, while healthy ones 
breathed from the other, yet in these cases no infection took place. 
These experiments are, however, only too abundantly contradicted 
by daily experiences. 

The Blood. — Numerous experiments made with the blood of 
glandered horses have shown it to be infectious. 

Schiinming * gives the following resume upon the results of his 
and other experiments : 

1. " Yenous blood from a glandered horse injected into the veins 
of a healthy one causes glanders. 

2. " The quantity of infected blood injected appears to exert an 
influence upon the duration of incubatory stadium ; the stage of the 
disease in the animal from which the blood was taken may not be 
without influence also. 

3. " Three months may elapse after the transfusion of such blood 
before we can recognize any pathognomonic symptoms. This will 
probably serve to explain the negative results which followed some 
of the experiments of Yiborg, Gerlach, and Hening ; that is, the 
period under which the animals were kept in observation was too 
short to allow the disease to develop. 

4. " The blood from glandered animals appears to have a less 
intensive action upon healthy animals than the nasal discharge, and 
secretions from wounded surfaces." 

5. " Transfusions with such blood in dogs, cats, and swine, gave 
negative results." 

6. " The subcutaneous injection of six grammes of defibrinated 

* " Ansteckungsfahigkeit d. Rotzblutes," Dorpat, 18*75. 



THE HORSE. 183 

blood, taken from a glandered horse, in dogs, produced the disease, 
which would seem to indicate that in this way the blood was more 
actively infectious than by intravenous injection." 

Chauveau looks upon the active principle of infection in the blood 
as being based on certain suspended particles, leucocytes, or other 
form-elements, and not upon the serum. 

Time failed me to make any search over the literature as to the 
existence of the infectious principle in the secretions of the parotid 
and other glands, or the urine, although Gerlach casually mentions 
that the latter is infectious, without giving any experimental proofs. 

Both practical and experimental experience sufficiently prove the 
fixedness of the infectious principle of glanders. 

We know that it is contained in the discharges from the nasal 
cavities, in the secretions of the cutaneous ulcers, and that whatever 
becomes polluted with such material, be it the harness, cribs, bed- 
ding, or any other accidental vehicles, may retain its dangerous prop- 
erties for a long time. 

A valuable experiment could be made as to infectiousness of the 
fseces from horses diseased with glanders. 

Tenacity of the Contagium. 

The infectious principle of glanders retains its activity for a long 
time, and under varying influences. "When a vehicle — nasal dis- 
charge — is spread out, and quickly dried, on any hard substance, it 
soon loses its activity, but in stables where it pollutes the crib, etc., 
it retains it many months. It loses its activity on exposure to a 
temperature of 45° R. ; by exposure to scalding water, or by the ac- 
tion of chemical agents — disinfectants — such as chlorine, carbolic 
acid, etc. — but only when brought into actual contact with the same. 

Decomposition does not appear to thoroughly destroy it (Ger- 
lach). It seems to lose its virulence when introduced into the in- 
testines (as flesh) of man, the dog, swine, and hens, but while not 
so active, is still capable of causing infection in the horse. 

The dispersion of the infectious principle over the organism is 
by means of the blood and lymphatic systems. 

The Entrance of the Infectious Principle into the Organism — that 
is, Natural Infection. 

Experience goes largely to prove that while the infectious ele- 
ments of glanders have a fixed character, that is, are not capable of 
being taken up by the atmospheric current, and carried to any great 
distance from the point of original generation, or lodgment, still that, 



184: THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

in by far the greater number of cases, infection must take place by 
means of this principle when suspended in the atmosphere ; that is, 
by means of the expired air from glandered horses. Were this 
not so, cutaneous glanders (farcy) would be far more common than 
it is ; in fact, it should, under this circumstance, be the primary 
form. 

Again, were the infection not generally due to a suspended 
principle, we should have far more cases of ulceration in the lower 
or exposed parts of the nasal passages, which is rare, while deeper 
seated ulcerations are more common. 

Again, that a suspended principle is commonly the cause of in- 
fection, is proved by the numerous cases of pulmonary glanders 
which occur with little or no nasal complications ; in the numerous 
cases of pulmonary glanders, accompanied by cicatrices in the mu- 
cosa of the bronchial tubes, trachea, and pharynx, all indicating the 
long continuance of the disease, but, with recent complications in 
the super-nasal parts, with no evidence of older complications. 

Disposition. — Immunity. 

As in every other contagious disease, not every horse exposed to 
infection has glanders. Of 138 healthy horses which Lamirault 
caused to stand among diseased ones, and to be cleaned, etc., with 
the same utensils, and to work with the same harnesses, only 29 be- 
came diseased — 28 with glanders, 1 with farcy. 

According to Lydtin, 40 to 50 per cent of the horses exposed to 
natural infection became diseased. 

By inoculation of 23 horses, only 8 became infected. 

The almost invariably fatal character of the disease does not 
allow us to judge whether an acquired immunity is possible or not, 
by animals that have once had it. 

With the present French mania for all kinds of vaccinations with 
cultivated virus, we shall probably hear of a modified form of 
glanders being able to give an acquired immunity to natural or fur- 
ther infection, at least for a time. 

I always stand skeptical to all such assertions — ready to believe, 
but doubting until the evidence is overwhelmingly pro or con. 

At present I do not believe in the generalization to which the 
few Pasteur vaccine experiments have led. 

Inoculation for glanders is no new thing, but has as yet always 
signally failed. Furnival,* an enthusiastic Briton, claims " to have 
cured seven bad cases of farcy by inoculation," and was anxious to 

* " Fleming's Veterinary Journal," vol. x, p. 51. 



THE HORSE. 185 

continue this method of equine salvation, but, as we have heard 
nothing more from him in this direction, we may conclude that 
there are backsliders in his equine salvation army. 

Phenomenology. 

According to duration, glanders may be spoken of as acute or 
chronic ; according to seat, as nasal, pulmonary, or cutaneous glanders 
(farcy). 

Pulmonary glanders can occur without either the nasal or cuta- 
neous forms being present, but it is very questionable if either of 
the latter can occur without evidences of pulmonary complications. 

Chronic glanders is the common, acute the rare course which 
the disease assumes. 

Incubation. — Duration. 

In inoculations the incubatory period is generally from three to 
five days, but in natural infection it is very hard to say, the authori- 
ties varying from five to six days to as many weeks. In that form 
which is known as chronic glanders, a period of apparent latency 
may exist for months, yet even here there must be a period of incu- 
bation. 

Acute glanders may terminate in from ten to fifteen days, while 
the chronic variety may continue for months or even years, how 
many is an open question. 

Chronic glanders terminates invariably with the acute form, but 
when the acute variety follows known infection, it never assumes a 
chronic character. 

Acute Nasal Glanders. 

Under this name we usually find both the acute processes in the 
mucous membranes of the head and those of the cutis treated. 

It is generally the conclusion of chronic glanders, where the dis- 
ease occurs by natural infection. It also may follow directly on in- 
fection. 

Although, according to Fleming, Keynal denies that acute gland- 
ers generally terminates the chronic form, the evidences to the con- 
trary are so strong as to leave no doubt of its correctness. 

The acute form is ushered in by more or less fever, by hyperse- 
mia of the mucosa of the nasal cavities, with tumefaction of the 
same, and sometimes with slight epistaxis (bleeding from the nose). 
In a few days the nodes begin to develop in the mucosa, or dif- 
fuse yellowish infiltrations of the same take place ; a discharge 
from the nose follows the first stage of congestion : the same is at 
first thin, viscid, and contains but few cellular elements, but it soon 



186 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

becomes thicker, more viscid, of a queer yellowish-green color, and 
adheres more or less to the nostrils. 

These nodes and infiltrations soon begin to show evidences of 
breaking down, the edges become swollen and ragged, resembling 
rodent ulcers; they extend by the formation of new nodes, or pro- 
liferations in the circumference, and the sequential breaking down 
of the same ; frequently such ulcers coalesce, giving rise to extensive 
ulcerated surfaces. When these conditions last a long while, perfo- 
ration of the septum sometimes takes place. 

It has been noticed that the discharge is often limited to one 
nostril, and particularly to the left, for which we have no explana- 
tion, but, whichever side it is, there is the locality of the most serious 
disturbances. 

The submaxillary and retro-pharyngeal lymph-glands soon be- 
come complicated, the infectious elements gaining access to them 
by means of the lymphatics of nasal cavities. The lymphatics may 
often be seen as swollen cords, and, if not seen, felt. The processes 
in the glands are essentially of an indurative character. The breath- 
ing is frequently labored, from the complication of the larynx, so 
much so that death may sometimes result from oedema glottidis. 
The fever increases, the animals become more and more depressed, 
lose their appetite, etc. If this condition appears as a conclusion 
of chronic glanders, we have mucous rales in the bronchi, sometimes 
pneumonic infiltration, with the usual respiratory symptoms. 

Soon follow oedematous swelling of the legs, sheath, the sub-ab- 
dominal region, with the characteristic farcy-buds over different 
parts of the body, especially the posterior, the swollen lymphatics, 
the complications, induration of the sub-cutis, etc. With the prog- 
ress of the disease, and breaking down of the tissues, the discharge 
from the nose and cutaneous ulcers becomes more profuse, diarrhoea 
frequently sets in, albuminuria is present, and, if not killed, the 
animals die a miserable death in from eight to fourteen days. 

In a case of chronic glanders, inflammatory conditions may be 
ushered in by a variety of circumstances, viz. : an infected horse 
may, in the same manner as a healthy one, be attacked by any 
acute feverish disease, let it be from any mechanical injury, from 
the influences of cold, or miasmata, or any such thing. Catarrhal 
disturbances of the respiratory tract are especially favorable to the 
transformation of chronic to acute glanders. Bad weather, cold and 
dry east winds, in fact, any influences which tend to irritate the mu- 
cosae, exert a similar influence. The same is true of severe surgical 
operations, wounds, fever, etc. 



THE HORSE. 187 

Bollinger has shown by numerous experiments that the nasal 
mucosa is a favorite place for the local disturbances of glanders with- 
out regard to the point whence infection took place. 

Pulmonary Glanders. 

In general, this form of glanders may be looked upon as the 
same thing as chronic glanders. The true importance of this form 
of the disease has scarcely had due appreciation even from the pro- 
fession. 

It can exist for months, or even years, without the appearance of 
any outward signwhich could be at once considered as pathognomonic. 

Gerlach and Bollinger both give numerous cases where glanders 
has been suspected, but in which characteristic symptoms entirely 
failed, yet on the autopsy the pathognomonic phenomena in the 
lungs were found abundantly represented. Gerlach says : 

" On November 2, 1863, three horses belonging to a coal-dealer 
were brought to the school clinic at Hanover. No. 1 was killed on 
account of farcy ; Nos. 2 and 3 were kept for four weeks under ob- 
servation. They were both emaciated, and had an ill-looking coat. 
No. 3 had no other suspicious symptoms. No. 2 had, at first, a 
slight tumefaction of the intermaxillary glands, which gradually 
diminished, and a somewhat retarded respiration. After four weeks' 
observation, both horses were returned to the owner, the police be- 
ing notified that they were still to be looked upon as suspicious. On 
the 10th of February, 1864, horse No. 2 was again brought to the 
school on account of epistaxis. It was much emaciated, and asth- 
matic to a high degree ; the respiration was much retarded, and the 
animal had a short, dry cough ; the intermaxillary glands were not 
diseased, and the nasal mucosa presented nothing abnormal. Fever 
and symptoms of disease were entirely wanting. On account of the 
antecedent circumstances, pulmonary glanders was suspected, and 
the horse killed. 

Autopsy. — The mucous membranes of the head and the inter- 
maxillary glands healthy, the lungs filled with glanders neoplasmata, 
etc. 

On account of this result, the third horse was killed. It was Irohen- 
winded, otherwise not a single sign of glanders could be perceived. 

Autopsy. — Not an indication of glanders in the nasal cavities or 
cavities of the head. Intermaxillary glands healthy. In the lungs 
tubercles, and the characteristic growths of glanders, phenomena 
which may be looked upon as justifying the strongest suspicion 
of the presence of chronic glanders, especially pulmonary. 



188 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Gerlach says : " It can be almost axiomatically asserted that a 
continuous hard nodulated condition of the intermaxillary glands in 
a horse is sufficient to excite the suspicion of the existence of glan- 
ders, even when no suspicious phenomena are to be seen in the nose. 
I have never seen a tumefied condition of these glands which had 
any deceptive resemblance to the bubo of glanders, in any simple 
inflammatory or catarrhal complications of the mucous membranes 
of the head. 

Further, a horse must be looked upon with suspicion — 

1. " When it has a dry, dull, wheezing cough, with retarded 
respiration ; when the general condition of the animal is poor, the 
hair staring, the body emaciated." 

2. " When horses in this condition have stood or worked beside, 
or otherwise been in relation with others known to have had glan- 
ders. 

3. " When the dyspncetic phenomena have been anticipated by 
suspicious glandular or catarrhal phenomena. 

4. " When a horse that has been much in contact with such a 
broken-winded horse acquires the disease, the latter should be sus- 
spected. 

5. " When, in the course of the above condition, any suspicious 
glandular or catarrhal complications make their appearance." 

Yeterinarians have made a mistake all along in judging glanders 
too much from the clinical stand-point, that is, from visible symp- 
toms, and have neglected to appreciate the true value or teachings 
of the processes in the larynx, trachea, lungs, and other organs, 
which are only revealed by a necroscopical examination. 

At the Berlin school, where very exact records are kept of the 
results of each autopsy, it was found that in 216 cases of glanders, 
upon which examinations were made between the years 1871 and 
1874, the location of the disease in the lungs failed in but ten of 
them, while they were wanting in thirty-three cases in the nasal 
cavities and those of the head. 

Pulmonary glanders, it must be repeated, is as frequently the 
primary lesion of the disease as that of the head or cutis. Of the 
above 216 cases, the lesions of the lungs were found to antedate 
those in the nose, or cutis, in more than half the cases. 

Bollinger says, from much experience, that the conclusion of 
Yirchow and others is erroneous, that the nasal mucosae are as fre- 
quently the atrium of the infectious principle of glanders as the 
genitals in syphilis, and that the pulmonary complications complete 
the disease. 



THE HORSE. 189 

In proof of which he gives the following cases from the records 
of the Munich school : 

1. A horse was brought in with a tumefied condition of the right 
hind-leg. The animal had a slight mucous flow from the nose, oc- 
casionally coughed, and had. some fever. The leg continued, to 
swell, the fever augmented, and the animal was killed, being con- 
sidered incurable. 

Autopsy. — Subacute glanders of the larynx, the trachea, and 
lungs. Nasal cavities completely normal. 

2. A nine-year-old horse, in a fair condition, was taken into the 
clinic with the appearance of severe dyspnoea. Nasal outflow from 
both sides, considerable fever, accelerated pulse and respiration, a 
weak, painful cough. The diagnosis was acute oedema glotticlis, or 
muscle paresis in larynx. Tracheotomy. After eight days the 
horse was killed. 

Autopsy. — Chronic and. subacute glanders of the larynx ; acute 
glanders of the nose, the trachea, and lungs. 

Upon the septum of the right nostril was to be seen a fresh 
ulcer, and in its neighborhood, as well as higher up, several smaller 
ones. Retropharyngeal and laryngeal glands acutely swollen. Ex- 
treme oedema glottidis. The inner surface of the larynx showed a 
diffuse ulceration, partly covered with fresh granulations. Isolated 
nodes in the lungs. 

3. Autopsy. — Chronic glanders of the larynx and lungs, with 
acute nasal glanders, and swelling of the glands. 

Pathological Anatomy. 

Glanders is essentially characterized by neoplasmatic processes, 
which are represented by tubercles, nodes, the diffuse infiltrations 
known as glanders-growths, and by pneumonic conditions, which in 
general come under the head of dry catarrhal, also by complica- 
tions of the stroma of the large glandular organs, and in very 
chronic cases by thrombosis of the pulmonary veins, and the forma- 
tion of gelatinous infiltrations of varied extent in the lungs. 

The unknown inficiens of glanders undoubtedly has a specific 
tendency to act upon, irritate, or excite into a state of proliferating 
activity the interstitial tissues, which compose the stroma or frame- 
work of the organs. 

The works on veterinary pathology absolutely fail, either in no- 
ticing this fact, or calling sufficient attention to it. 

I can not at this moment recall a single paper upon the 
" shrunken kidney " of chronic glanders, which is a very common 



190 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

occurrence, and many of our text-books make no reference to the 
clinical phenomena by which it is indicated ; but when present we 
can almoit, if not always, find casts and detritus in the urine, as well 
as albumen. 

It is also worth recording that this shrinking of the equine kid- 
ney in chronic glanders — I have never seen it in any other disease, 
but my own experience is very limited — which is due to prolif- 
eration of the elements of the stroma, and thus anticipated by a 
swollen condition of these organs, does not give rise to that granu- 
lous or hob-nailed appearance, which occurs in man under like 
processes, and produce the condition falsely called cirrhosis renalis 
—Ktppos, yellow — a name given to the yellow appearance of the 
cut surface of the liver — rum-drinker's liver — due to stocking of 
the gall, under similar processes, upon the hepatic stroma. The 
framework of the liver of the horse is complicated in a like man- 
ner, giving rise to brown atrophy. 

As the disease assumes an acute character, we find the organic 
parenchyma also affected, which makes itself anatomically apparent 
in the clouded swollen condition of the cells, the fatty metamor- 
phosis of their plasma, and finds its expression in the weak move- 
ments of the organs, muscles, and the gradually approaching ma- 
rasmus. 

The very frequent occurrence of ante-mortem coagula in the 
heart, and formation of extended and bleached-out thrombi in the 
pulmonary veins, is to be attributed to the weakness of the heart, 
due to parenchymatous carditis. 

In the report of Ditmars (to the Agricultural Department, pre- 
viously alluded to) on glanders, may be read quite a dissertation 
upon glanders-cells as something specific. This idea is borrowed 
from Gerlach, and is simply a product of the period when Gerlach 
studied the disease, and the minds and endeavors of pathologists 
were all bent toward the discovery and description of specific cells. 

Singular to say, Gerlach, who was in general not only a skep- 
tical but most logical man, fell into this error. 

Gerlach says : " The neoplasmatic processes of glanders consist 
of round cells, spindle-cells, the last in part derivatives from the 
former, and the proliferation of the connective tissue, which, by-the- 
way, is only a secondary phenomenon in glanders, and has nothing 
specific. These round cells have nothing singular in their form, 
they are like granulation and pus cells ; nevertheless, they are spe- 
cific and the true basis of the disease — they are therefore gland- 
ers-cells." 



THE HORSE. 191 

In the above we have two serious errors : 

1. There are no such things as specific cells. 

2. The complications of the connective-tissue, stroma, of the 
organs, in which proliferation takes place, is essentially peculiar to 
glanders — that is, in the general manner in which it occurs, though 
the process itself has nothing specific in it, and may and does 
occur under other conditions. The irritans, the infectious prin- 
ciple of glanders, is the specific element ; and also, we can say, the 
general manner in which the interstitial tissues of the equine or- 
ganism are complicated, is also something peculiar to the disease. 
Gerlach contradicts himself when he calls these round and spindle 
cells " glanders-cells," especially the former, and says they con- 
stitute the "specific and true basis of the disease." In another 
place he tells us, " they originate from the cells of the connective tis- 
sue and epithelial elements." 

Were they specific to glanders, they should be peculiar to it, and 
not occur in anything else. 

This is not so : they are the simple products of inflammation. 
Just such cells may be found in simple but severe ulcerations of the 
nasal mucosae, from wounds, chemical irritants, or such like. "We 
can produce them at pleasure. 

Specific cells are a physiological impossibility, so far as abnor- 
mality is concerned. 

They may be heterotopic, that is, produced at a place where they 
do not belong ; as an epithelial production in the brain, or in the 
uterus, or a bone ; then we call it cancer. 

Or the singular phenomenon of an embryonal tooth in the pa- 
rotid region, which is sometimes met with in the horse. 

Neither the cells nor the teeth having anything peculiar in them- 
selves, they are normal elements in a wrong place. 

Cells may be heterochronic — that is, normal cells may be pro- 
duced at an abnormal time. 

In Fig. 2 of Gerlach's illustration of glanders-cell, he give as 
first-class picture of the gelatinous connective tissue of the embry- 
onal umbilical cord ; a specimen, by-the-way, which offers the very 
best opportunity of studying the appearance and connections of 
spindle-cells. 

Glanders-cells, cancer-cells, tubercle-cells, are all without any spe- 
cificity. It is not the cell alone which makes the cancer ; it is the 
seat, and the peculiar anatomical arrangements, with its physiologi- 
cal characteristics, which constitute the specificity of that malignant 
neoplasm. 



192 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

The genesis of these cells in the nasal discharge was pretty cor- 
rectly given by Gerlach, bnt since his day we have been taught that 
the greater portion of them are migrated leucocytes ; this is true for 
pus-formation, but in inflammations it is certain that proliferation 
also takes place — hence some of our round cells may be prolifer- 
ated, epithelial, or connective-tissue elements. This question of the 
origin of spindle-cells by formative processes or inflammations is 
still an open one, to my mind, notwithstanding the authority of 
Cohnheim. I, for one, do not believe a white blood-cell can trans- 
form or develop into a spindle-cell. We can not tell the difference 
between a white blood-cell and the intermediate or round cell con- 
dition of the developing spindle-cell. 

Like begets like, and in inflammations, where formation takes 
place, it is my opinion that the migrated cells perish by fatty de- 
generation, and the formation is due, as long ago asserted by Vir- 
chow, to the permanent elements. 

In glanders we have more or less circumscribed forms of neo- 
plastic formations. The first of these are the tubercles, which vary 
in size from submiliary to that of a cherry or acorn ; 2. The gland- 
ers-growths, varying from the above to the size of an apple, but of 
irregular form ; 3. The glanders-infiltrations, which are less circum- 
scribed in their outlines, and extended along the surface ; these are 
particularly to be found in the nasal mucosa and sub-cutis. 

The Glanders- Tiibercle. — There has been and still exists much 
discussion and difference of opinion as to what should be considered 
a true tubercle. 

While this discussion is valuable, from an anatomical and prac- 
tical sense, it has still led to much unnecessary mystification among 
students. 

It has always been the old hunt after specific cells, or specific 
characteristics, by which to decide between two (macroscopically) 
apparently similar objects. In the energy of this hunt the true spe- 
cific has been lost sight of to a much too great degree. 

The cause, irritans, is the specific element ; the product may or 
may not have specific characteristics. We find tubercles occurring 
under a great variety of circumstances and among many different 
species of animals. Different causes lead to their production in 
one and the same species. 

In the horse, tubercles occur in glanders ; an idiopathic miliary 
tuberculosis has been reported, however. 

I can not at present tell whether there are any marked structural 
differences in these tubercles in the horse. 



THE HORSE. 193 

Again, a peculiar chronic production in old horses, with more or 
less bronchial catarrh, is known as " bronchitis nodosa " ; this has 
been mistaken for glanders and for true tuberculosis. The nodes are 
mostly composed of connective tissue, with round cells between the 
fibers, and consist of a circumscribed proliferation of the walls of 
the finest bronchioli, as they lose themselves in the infundibula. 
At times one can make a differential diagnosis, macroscopically, with 
ease, a transverse section of the object revealing the lumen of the 
air-tube. Carefully executed microscopic section will always reveal 
the true nature of these nodes. 

Hereditary influences do not appear to play any part in the pro- 
duction of tuberculosis in the horse. 

The glanders-tubercle, in the lungs, is of a permanent character; 
it does not extend, as in human tuberculosis, by infection of the 
neighboring tissues, forming large masses of degenerating material, 
which break down and lead to the formation of cavities — one form 
of phthisis pulmonum. They do not occur in any such quantity 
as in the human lung. They are inclined to calcify, although fatty 
degeneration of their centers is by no means uncommon. 

They are due to a specific cause, the irritans of glanders. 

I have no doubt that miliary tuberculosis can be produced in the 
horse, by the entrance of foreign substances into the lungs, as the 
aspiration of a spray containing in it the sputa from human phthisi- 
cal subjects, as has been done in dogs. 

We know nothing of the cause of the very rare miliary tubercu- 
losis in the horse. 

In men and cattle we have an hereditary predisposition to tuber- 
culosis. 

Here comes the ridiculous part of the assertion of many authors. 

The diseases are identical. Why ? Because in both cases giant- 
cells are found in the tubercles. The tubercles of glanders are not 
true tubercles. 

1. Because they have no giant-cells. 

2. Because they have a central vessel, which these others do not. 
Both forms have a vascular circle, or rete, embracing them. 
Giant-cells are not specific to tubercles. The} 7 are not present in 

all stages of the development of the neoplasm. According to Kol- 
liker, their presence is always indicative of retrogressive or destruc- 
tive processes ; they are the rodents of cellular pathology, or physi- 
ology. 

They occur in the medulla of the bones, in sarcomatous tu- 
mors, and, according to Kolliker, are one of the active causes of 

13 



194 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

the normal indentations of the bones — at least, they are found under 
the periosteum. Tuberculosis also comes to pass in swine, rabbits, 
Guinea-pigs, monkeys, and other animals. Does the same cause 
work here as in man, the horse, or cow ? 

Again, etiologically speaking, we have several varieties of tuber- 
culosis in man : First, hereditary causes ; second, idiopathic infec- 
tion, from antecedent conditions, scrophulosis, cheesy conditions of 
glands due to other causes; third, infection from persons having 
phthisis, by means of the aspiration of some specific irritans with 
which they pollute the air ; and, fourth, the questionable infection 
due to milk from tuberculous nurses, or cows. 

In cattle, we may briefly assume an almost similar line of causes. 

This will do for our present purpose. 

The tubercular neoplasm of glanders is, and always will be, a 
tubercle, having its peculiar cause, anatomical construction, and 
course. 

Undoubtedly, in some unknown way, the physiological and ana- 
tomical characteristics of the different species, as well as the varia- 
tions in the cause, exert some influence upon the structure and 
course of life of the tubercle. "With regard to the structure and 
nature of the tubercles in glanders, Yirchow says that " they are 
formed chiefly by cellular proliferation. In the youngest neoplasm 
I found large numbers of small, delicate cells, as well as numerous 
nuclei ; in older tubercles, the cells are longer and contain nuclei ; 
these cells are very abundant, composing the greater part of the 
node. These cells undoubtedly proceed from the pre-existing ele- 
ments, and especially in the mucosae from the connective-tissue cells 
of the mucosa and sub-mucosa. The greater the number of cells, 
so much more dense and yellow is the node ; retrogressive processes 
soon take place in the older nodes ; the cells undergo fatty meta- 
morphosis, and break up and shrink. 

Leisering, who has made very extensive studies upon the neo- 
plasmata of glanders, says : " In whatever form the neoplasms of 
glanders may appear, the cells constitute their prevailing element. 
They are generally found varying in size ; the majority bearing the 
strongest resemblance to pus-cells ; others are from four to six times 
larger. Aside from these, numerous free nuclei go to make up the 
largest part of the node, as well as the cells of proliferating connect- 
ive tissue. The neoplasms have a varying character, according to 
the predominance of the cellular, or stromatous, intercellular tissue 
over one another. The more rapid the development of the neo- 
plasm, the more prominent the cellular elements ; on the contrary, 



THE HORSE. 195 

in slow development, the connective tissue prevails. The dissolu- 
tion is hastened or retarded by the same. In slow development, the 
vascularization is less marked than in rapid. Wherever the pro- 
cesses of glanders are present, there may be found the tubercles, al- 
though the lungs are the favorite seat. They are sometimes present 
in great numbers, and at others it is very hard to find even solitary 
examples. 

"Why the tubercles in the lungs have so little tendency to break 
down, and those in the nasal mucosa are so prone thereto, must be 
sought in two circumstances : 

1. Their development is far slower in the lungs. 

2. The matrix is different. 

Those in the lungs are, absolutely from a connective-tissue 
matrix, while those in any mucosa are from a far less consistent 
matrix. 

At any rate, they occur in the nasal mucosa much more as 
they develop in the human lung, that is, en masse, which, on ac- 
count of their transient character, accounts for the tendency to 
breaking down, and here they seem also to have the infectious char- 
acter of the human tubercle, new ones springing up in immediate 
proximity to antecedent ones, which gives to the ulcerated surfaces 
thus caused their rodent or extending characters. 

The development of tubercles in the sinuses of the head does 
not occur to any such degree as in the mucosa proper to the nasal 
cavities ; the nodes, or neoplasmatic productions which we find here, 
have a different character, to which we shall again refer. 

In farcy, the tubercles lie chiefly in the cutis, although they also 
develop in the subcutaneous cellular tissue, and frequently attain 
considerable size. 

"Histologically, the tubercles of glanders are exactly alike, 
whether we find them in the lungs, nose, or cutis. In a fresh con- 
dition they are more or less soft, transparent, and of a pearl-gray 
color. In this condition they each have an individual central ves- 
sel, as may be seen by injected lung specimens." 

Do those of the other localities have this central vessel ? 

" In the examination of these nodes, we may often find at the 
center a hsemorrhagic point, which probably proceeds from this 
vessel. 

" They may continue for a long time in the above condition. 
"When newly developed, they are immediately limited by healthy 
lung-tissue ; later they become a special limiting membrane of con- 
nective tissue. They are frequently surrounded by a circle of con- 



196 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

gested vessels, outside of which we frequently find more or less 
desquamative pneumonia. 

" They undergo different metamorphoses ; sometimes fatty de- 
generation or calcification. 

" These calcified centers can often be removed as small calculi 
from the connective-tissue capsule, or limiting membrane. The de- 
velopment of ulcers most frequently occurs in the mucosa of the 
respiratory tract and in the cutis ; neoplastic and degenerative pro- 
cesses following successively on each other." 

Infiltrated Neoplastic Processes. 

" By this is meant diffuse, not sharply circumscribed, neoplas- 
tic growths, composed of a gelatinous, pellucid, yellowish, reddish, 
or grayish mass. 

" This condition is most frequently met with in the mucosa of 
the nose, the sinuses of the head, the larynx, and trachea ; they ex- 
tend but little above the surface of the mucosa proper. 

" They undergo, generally, two forms of metamorphosis : 

" a. Desquamation of the epithelium takes place upon the dis- 
eased localities, leaving an ulcerated surface. The cellular ele- 
ments prevail to even a greater extent than in the nodes. They 
vary much in size. They undergo dissolution very rapidly, and give 
the most pregnant examples of glanders ulceration. 

" b. The fibrous character may predominate, and it is in this form 
that cicatrization takes place." 

Yirchow differs from Leisering, in that he thinks the cicatrices 
proceed from the ulcers, rather than from the infiltrated form 
glanders. Bollinger looks upon the cicatrices as processes of natural 
healing of ulcerated surfaces, whether the same come from ulcera- 
tive or infiltrated disturbances. 

In nasal glanders we frequently find intensive thrombosis of 
the veins of the septum and turbinated bones, as well as of the lym- 
phatics. 

The mucosa of the sinuses of the head is very delicate in a nor- 
mal condition ; in many cases of glanders we find it the subject of 
neoplastic processes, mostly of the diffuse form, interrupted by 
numerous circumscribed places of a more fibrous character, which 
project above the general surface. The mucosa and periosteum of 
these cavities form one membrane, and it is self-evident that one 
can not be complicated without the disturbance extending to the 
others, which leads to the developmont of osteophytes and hyperos- 
toses, which remain after the mucosa has been removed by maceration. 



THE HOKSE. 197 

Haubner, of Dresden, has endeavored, and often successfully, to 
make use of these complications of the sinuses of the head as aids 
to diagnosis in doubtful cases of glanders. By trepanning, the dis- 
eased nature of the mucosa and bones may frequently be seen, and 
in many cases the true nature of the disease may be determined by 
the ulcerative character which the healing wound of the operation 
assumes, although this can not be said to be an invariable rule. 

We also find these diffuse neoplastic processes in the lungs of 
varying size and quantity. Sometimes they are on the edges, and 
at others in the body of the lung. In their substance tubercles may 
be often found ; the adjoining tissue is generally more or less hyper- 
semic. 

At first, these places consist of a yellow, gelatinous mass ; later, 
the cellular or fibroid character may prevail. In the first case, they 
present some characteristics of gray hepatization / in the last, the 
cut surface is dry, and the resistance to the knife greater in making 
a transverse section. 

These infiltrations undergo the same metamorphoses which we 
have learned in the tubercles, and complicate the pulmonary tissue 
in their dissolution. In general, caseification and calcification take 
place. They are frequently circumscribed by a sort of connective- 
tissue capsule. 

The processes in the cutis and limiting muscles have the same 
characteristics as those in the lungs and nasal cavities, except that 
the lymphatics are more considerably complicated. They frequent- 
ly terminate in extensive sclerosis of the subcutaneous cellular tis- 
sues or the development of ulcers, farcy-buds, or abscesses. Ery- 
sipelatous and phlegmonous complications of the cutis and subcutis 
are by no means uncommon, especially in the extremities. 

As secondary complications of glanders, we often find bronchitis 
and broncho-pneumonia in the lungs, especially in the anterior and 
deeper portions. 

Another peculiar pulmonary complication, though not specific to 
glanders alone, as it comes also in aged and worn-out horses, is 
known as gelatinous infiltrations. 

This condition being so common, and so little noticed in works 
on veterinary pathology, I feel justified in touching upon it here. 

Schutz, the able pathologist of the Veterinary School at Berlin, 
says, " This condition occurs quite frequently in the lungs of horses 
complicated with glanders, and I must admit that I have had no 
little difficulty in following its genesis." * 

* " Lungenkrankheiten des Pferdes." 



198 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Gelatinous, infiltrated portions of the lungs are more or less 
transparent, densely filled with fluid, and extended to a moderate 
degree. The fluid in such parts is viscid. The changes in these 
parts become more marked as the fluid in the alveoli augments. 
When we make a transverse section of such parts, this fluid does 
not flow over the cut surface, which is smooth and lustrous, unless 
we exert pressure upon the lung. The contents of the alveoli 
strongly resemble mucus, but, as there is no mucous membrane in 
the alveoli, it terminates with the broilchiolus ; if this fluid contains 
mucin, it must then be aspirated with the air. It does not, how- 
ever, contain mucin. This fluid is very viscid and much like the 
white of eggs ; it also contains cells, most of which strongly resem- 
ble the white blood-cells ; some of them are larger, and are undoubt- 
edly desquamated and swollen endothelial cells. 

Accordingly, the disease product in the lungs consists of a viscid 
fluid and cellular elements ; this mass seems to be of a movable 
nature, and it is quite interesting to know why it is not expecto- 
rated. 

At first, however, I will remark that I can not accept the termi- 
nology, " inveterate oedema," which Rindfleisch has given to this 
condition, especially as he attributes it to the extravasation of the 
serous elements of the blood in consequence of mechanical hinder- 
ance to the circulation. On the contrary, we have here to do with 
an inflammatory process, as is indicated by the presence of so many 
round cells in the fluid. Laennec was the first to give the name of 
" gelatinous infiltrations " to these conditions, and Bruckmuller has 
also treated it as an inflammatory process. In it the extravasation 
of fluid far exceeds that of the cellular elements of the blood, 
which, with the desquamated epithelium of the alveoli, make up 
the mass. When this occurs alone we have a desquamative pneu- 
monia, which is similar to the desquamation which occurs from 
the cutis, except that the loosened cells are here inclosed in a cav 
ity ; the presence of the fluid in this case causes them to swell, 
and become more or less transparent, the same as when we put the 
desquamated cells of the cutis-epithelium in water. As in most 
pneumonias, there is also an exudation of fluid from the vessels into 
the alveoli ; the name of catarrhal pneumonia is better than Buhl's 
terminology, " desquamative pneumonia." Horses have, in general, 
this form of pneumonia, although not every catarrhal pneumonia 
is complicated with gelatinous infiltration. 

The conditions to the development of gelatinous infiltration are : 

1. u Atelectasis of the complicated pulmonary tissue — i. e., the 



TEE HORSE. 199 

complicated portion of the lungs must first be airless before the 
inflammatory processes take place. The atelectatic parts have a 
more or less homogeneous character, and, when they become filled 
with this fluid substance, they have the above-mentioned gelatinous, 
pellucid character. The atelectatic parts are rendered cedematous by 
the inflammation ; fluid and cells distend the alveoli instead of air ; 
such parts are tense, yet elastic to the touch. We have, then, atelec- 
tasis — airlessness — plus inflammatory oedema." 

" It may be remarked that we have two forms of oedema : the 
one mechanical, due to some interference with the circulation, by 
which the vessels become so distended that the serous elements of 
blood exude through the vessels ; this is exemplified by the collat- 
eral oedema, which often takes place in the non-complicated parts of 
the lungs in pneumonia, that causes death by a sort of internal 
self -drowning. The other is due to inflammation, which you should 
know all about." 

2. " A second condition proper to gelatinous infiltration is anae- 
mia ; or, in other words, bloodless atelectasis is a sine qua non to ge- 
latinous infiltration. This anaemia is the reason that such parts 
have a yellowish or yellowish-gray color. According to Eindfleisch, 
a hyperaemic condition develops in every atelectatic part. This 
hyperaemia is the cause of the exudation of the blood-serum in the 
alveoli, and causes a condition which he names splenization. His 
' inveterate oedema ' is only to be distinguished from splenization 
by the absence of hyper&emia, and the anaemia by the pressure 
caused by the continued transudation of fluid into the alveoli." 

According to Schutz, neither splenization nor gelatinous infiltra- 
tion are due to mere serous transudation. Both owe their genesis 
in atelectatic tissues to inflammation, except in splenization the ate- 
lectasic tissues are in a hyperaemic, while in gelatinous infiltration 
they are in an anaemic condition. The splenized and gelatinous 
infiltrated tissues contain not only serous fluid, but the products 
of inflammation, i. e., water, which is rich in albumen and cellular 
elements. Gelatinous infiltration is, therefore, not the second stage 
of splenization, as Rindfleisch asserts, but either can occur sui gene- 
ris, and we have therefore to consider why at one time we have 
gelatinous infiltration and at another splenization of the lung. 

" I have only seen gelatinous infiltration in emaciated and weak 
horses, which were anaemic. It makes no difference whether this 
latter condition was produced by poor dietetic conditions or chronic 
disease. In such horses all parts are pale, also the atelectatic por- 
tions of the lungs ; and slight catarrhal processes in such parts easily 



200 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

produce gelatinous infiltration. The grade of the anaemia present 
decides the grade of the paleness, and the latter is not the secondary 
but the primary condition of the lungs, into which the transudation 
of fluid, etc., takes place. "When, however, the atelectatic parts are 
at the same time hypersemic, as in vital hypostasis, and, in such 
hypostatic-atelectatic parts, inflammation takes place, then we have 
splenization. 

" Gelatinous infiltration, therefore, consists of atelectasis, cviice- 
mia, transudation of fluid, and a moderate filling of the alveoli with 
cells ; splenization, of atelectasis, hypostasia, hypercemia, transuda- 
tion of fluid, and a moderate filling of the alveoli with cells." 

The conditions to atelectasis and anaemia are always present in 
emaciated horses. In such, the respiratory movements are weak, 
and they frequently suffer from bronchial catarrh. Atelectasis is 
naturally to be found in those portions of the lungs where the con- 
ditions to the free circulation of the air are the least favorable ; that 
is, the middle and anterior portions of each lung. The extent of 
the atelectasis is dependent upon the extension of the bronchial 
catarrh, and the degree of weakness of the respiratory functions. 
As such horses are also anaemic, the atelectatic portion of the lung 
must be in a like condition. Atelectasis and anaemia are both quite 
common in horses suffering from chronic glanders ; their respira- 
tory functions are also weak, and they often suffer from bronchial 
catarrh. Therefore, in such horses, the lungs are already prepared 
for gelatinous infiltration, and we see it occurs the moment they 
acquire a catarrhal pneumonia. Gelatinous infiltration is, how- 
ever, a secondary complication, and has no idiopathic connection 
with glanders. Each can occur without the other, though the 
former is a frequent complication of the latter. We frequently find 
the pathological processes of glanders in small and circumscribed 
portions of the lungs, while the gelatinous infiltrations complicate 
extensive portions of the same. When the latter are very exten- 
sive, we often see striking clinical phenomena, caused by local ca- 
tarrhal pneumonia, which has come in as a secondary complication 
to glanders. Clinicians have then said that the glanders has be- 
come acute, though in truth it has only become complicated by an 
acute catarrhal pneumonia. 

"If they die in this condition, glanders has not been the cause, 
but the accessory complication. If such horses have laid upon one 
side for some time ante-mortem, we shall find hypostatic hyperoemia 
in the diseased portions of the lungs, and then, instead of gelatinous 
infiltration, we shall find a splenized condition in the deeper-seated 



THE HORSE. 201 

portions of the lungs. Such parts derive their name from their re- 
semblance to the spleen. 

" Gelatinous infiltration and splenization occur under peculiar 
circumstances ; both of them represent the beginning of an inflam- 
matory process, or a cellular infiltration of the alveoli — red hepatiza- 
tion. Frequently, however, the alveoli become filled with cells, 
when we have the condition of full cellular alveolic infiltration — 
gray hepatization. These places are situated in the vicinity of the 
bronchioli, and bespeak a high degree of irritation of the pulmonic 
tissues. The causes of catarrhal pneumonia find their atrium by 
means of the bronchi, so it is natural that these conditions should 
develop in their vicinity. Broncho-pneumonia has always a local 
character ; it is circumscribed, not diffuse ; centers of pneumonia, 
therefore, develop in the gelatinous, infiltrated, or splenized parts. 
In the first, the centers are of a whitish, in the latter of a grayish- 
red, color. Persons who loot upon all circumscribed inflammatory 
centers as indications of glanders, could easily mistake these for the 
same. They have nothing whatever to do with glanders, however, 
and can occur in any horse under the above conditions." 

We have already spoken of the general complication of the in- 
terstitial tissue, or stroma, of the large glands of the organism in 
glanders, which does not find mention in the books, and have only 
to mention that circumscribed neoplasmata also develop in these 
organs, and sometimes within the bones. In the liver they possess 
a great inclination to calcify. Clouded swelling and granular de- 
generation of parenchyma of these organs also take place. Leuco- 
cytosis, or an unnatural number of white blood-cells, is also common 
in chronic glanders ; the increase of these cells is sometimes so great 
as to produce a veritable leucaemia ; ten white to twenty red cells 
have frequently been counted. The cause of this condition is to be 
sought in the constant irritation which the lymph-glands undergo in 
this disease. 

Diagnosis. 

The diagnosis of glanders is often extremely difficult ; especially 
is this the case in the chronic form, where all external pathognomonic 
symptoms are wanting ; but the fact of infection of other horses, 
the prevalence of the previously detailed dyspncetic, debilitated, 
and other suspicious phenomena are generally sufficient to warrant 
a questionable diagnosis, and the exact quarantining or slaughter- 
ing of the animal by the authorities. 



202 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Prognosis. 
Always unfavorable ; treatment is never justifiable, on account 
of the danger of the extension of the disease to man and other ani- 
mals. 

Prevention. 

No one but accredited veterinarians should ever be permitted to 
examine either glandered or suspected horses by the civil authori- 
ties. If the disease is confirmed, or if there is a justified suspicion 
of its existence, the veterinarian should at once inaugurate careful 
inquiries as to the period during which the suspicious symptoms 
have been present; the number of horses stabled with such dis- 
eased or suspected ones ; whether they have worked with them ; 
which have stood beside them, and for how long ; have any been 
sold, or otherwise removed from the stable, and carefully examine 
each horse in detail. The results of such an examination should be 
reported in due form to the civil authorities. The examining vet- 
erinarian should at once isolate the diseased or suspected horses in 
a place distant from the healthy ones, or better, the healthy ones 
should, if possible, be removed from the infected stable. The owner 
and attendants must be notified of their duties in this regard, and of 
the danger to themselves from carelessness. 

Special persons should be detailed to take care of the suspected 
animals. 

The veterinarian should make an accurate and detailed descrip- 
tion of each horse upon the place, or in the stable, a copy of which, 
with owner's name, should be given to the civil authorities. 

If glanders be diagnosed in a horse, it should be at once killed, 
and in a way to guarantee, as far as possible, no further extension of 
the disease. 

When the suspicion of glanders exists, the animals should be 
killed— 

1. When it can be proved that the suspected animal has been in 
intimate relations with one known to have had the disease. 

2. When there exists a suspicious nasal discharge ; tumefaction 
and nodulated conditions of the intermaxillary and other accessible 
lymph-glands ; when suspicious cutaneous conditions are present, 
especially when in unison with these conditions we have more or less 
marked difficulty in respiration, and want of condition in the animal. 

3. When, after the lapse of three months, a suspected horse 
can not be declared free from suspicion by a majority of three quali- 
fied veterinarians. 



THE HORSE. 203 

4. "When the owner can not supply suitable conveniences for 
quarantining such a horse, or where reasons exist which render such 
a procedure necessary to the public good. 

5. If the owner refuses to comply with the veterinary police 
regulations. 

When necessary, suspected horses should be branded in a man- 
ner to be fixed by law. 

A horse must be looked upon as " suspected " when it has stood 
in the same stable with one known to have or have had the disease ; 
or when it is known that it has been exposed to infection from such 
a horse. 

Suspected horses or stables must be subjected to periodical ex- 
aminations by an accredited veterinarian ; these revisions should 
occur at least once in eight days. 

Such horses may be allowed to be used within certain limits and 
according to certain regulations of the civil authorities. 

Such horses should be kept under veterinary control for a period 
of not less than three months. If the restrictive regulations of the 
civil authorities are not rigidly adhered to, suspected horses must be 
subjected to stable quarantine, where veterinary revision should also 
take place at least twice a month. 

The animal should be peremptorily killed, should the owner 
attempt to evade these rules, and the evasion punished by law. 

Should the disease extend from an infected locality, a careful 
examination of the horses in the vicinity should be made. 

The cadavers of horses killed on account of glanders should 
either be chemically destroyed or securely buried, after the hide 
had been destroyed by slashing and the carcass rendered unpal- 
atable by saturation with kerosene. Three feet of earth should 
cover such cadavers, and the burial-place be either fenced in or 
paved. 

Public watering-troughs are to be condemned, and faucets put 
in their place. Hackmen, teamsters, etc., should be obliged by law 
to carry buckets to water their horses. 

The disease may be declared as ended — 

"When all diseased or suspected horses have been killed, or when 
the latter have been declared free from suspicion. 

"When the infected stables, utensils, harnesses, etc., have been 
thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. 



204 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Glanders in Human Beings. 

As I said of anthrax, it seems to me indispensable that the vet- 
erinarian should also know the essential points of glanders in man. 
In detailing these I shall give the facts directly from Bollinger's 
description. 

Etiology. 

It must be self-evident that equine glanders is the source whence 
human beings derive the disease. In most cases it is possible to 
trace the disease to the cause, although in some we are unable to ; 
this latter variety has been looked upon in times past as of sponta- 
neous origin. 

The inficiens gains access to the human organs by means of 
wounded or abraded surfaces, either in the care of diseased ani- 
mals, or by persons examining them, or by persons in knackers' 
establishments, and occasionally through accident or sheer careless- 
ness. In some cases the nose, mouth, or eyes may serve as the 
atrium, when horses snort and blow such material into these cavities. 
A few cases have been reported where the bite of a glandered horse 
has caused infection. 

It is undoubtedly a fact that the flesh of glandered horses is in- 
fectious, as is proved by the disease occurring in lions and other 
animals that have fed upon it. 

Decroix, the noted hijjpophagist of France, had the temerity to 
eat it in both a cooked and uncooked condition, and saw no evil re- 
sults therefrom. Roll and others report cases of infection of grooms 
and others by drinking from the stable water-pails, or by wiping a 
wound with a rubbing-cloth, or among veterinarians by using one's 
handkerchief to wipe the horse's discharge from off the clothes, and 
then using it about the person. 

When the disease occurs without any known locus infectionis, 
we must assume that it is through the aspired air, especially where 
a constitutional complication antedates any local disturbances. 

This has been observed to occur in grooms, etc., especially where 
they sleep in the stables, or by the accidental sleeping upon the 
straw which had been used to bed a glandered horse. 

In this regard the following two cases are interesting : 

1. A groom had the habit of taking the warm blanket off 
the horse and replacing it with another. He would roll himself 
up in it perfectly nude, and cover himself with others, and thus 
sleep in the stable. The man acquired glanders, though no one 
had suspected its existence in the horse, nor were there any ul- 



THE HORSE. 205 

cerations, nasal discharge, or tumefied glands, to indicate its pres- 
ence. 

The autopsy developed the presence of pulmonary and constitu- 
tional glanders.* 

2. This is a most remarkable and instructive case. A family 
lived over a stable, with steps leading down from the tenement by 
the stable-door. The mother had an infant at the breast, and one 
day, when taking it down to give it fresh air, a horse which was 
being led out snorted and blew some discharge from its nostrils into 
the child's face. The child was taken ill, and glanders diagnosed. 
An elder sister, who was in condition to act as wet-nurse, one day 
took the child to nurse ; she had excoriated nipples, and some of the 
discharge from the child's nose probably came in contact with them. 
Both child and sister died from glanders, f 

3. A young man purchased a glandered horse at Detroit, Michi- 
gan, not knowing what it was. He contracted the disease and 
died. 

The Massachusetts State Board of Health have recorded thirteen 
cases of glanders, between the years 1859 and 1875, in that State. 

Cases of the transmission of glanders from man to man have 
been reported ; one where a family of man, wife, and four children 
all became diseased from sleeping in the same bed with the father. 
Predisposition. — It can, in general, be said to be very small, 
when we consider the frequent occasions offered to infection to those 
whose business brings them among such horses. 

In general, glanders among human beings may be said to be a 
" calling " disease ; that is, occurring among the above-named classes. 
Of the 106 cases collected by Bollinger — 
41 were grooms. 

11 coachmen, teamsters, and riders. 
14 horse-owners and farmers. 
10 veterinarians and veterinary students. 
6 knackers. 
6 horse-butchers. 
5 soldiers. 
4 doctors. 
3 gardeners. 
2 horse-dealers. 

1 each in a policeman, shepherd, smith, and an anatomy serv- 
ant at a veterinary school. 

* " Mittheilung an d. Praxis im Preussischen Staate," 18Y9-'80. 
•j- " Veterinary Journal," vol. ix, p. 144. 



206 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Incubation. — The incubatory period is from three to five days ; 

sometimes extending to fourteen days or three weeks. 

Course. — The disease assumes either an acute, subacute, or chronic 

form. 

Acute Glandeks. 

Of twenty-eight cases, of which but one ended fatally, the aver- 
age duration, aside from the period of incubation, was 16*5 days. 
Cases of seven to eight days' duration are rare ; in general, it lasts 
two to three weeks, sometimes four. 

The introductory phenomena are frequently a general feeling of 
disturbance, weakness, headache, shivering, often combined with 
uncertain pains in the extremities, especially in the muscles and 
joints. 

If a trauma (wounds) formed the atrium of the inficiens, we may 
remark on the locus infectionis hyperaemia and inflammation of 
the parts ; swelling and inflammation of the lymphatics. In rare 
cases the disease begins with shivering. "When the pains are in- 
tense and intermittent or continued, fever is present. The ulcers 
increase, the edges and base acquire an evil appearance, the ulcer 
frequently a chancrous, rodent character. When the wound is upon 
a finger, the whole arm may be the seat of an erysipelatous or phleg- 
monous inflammation, which is often complicated with pustular or 
ulcerous eruptions. The constitutional disturbances increase at the 
same time : the patient loses appetite ; the evacuations are retarded ; 
the weakness increases ; the pains in the muscles and joints become 
more intense, and the fever augments. 

When the anamnesis is wanting, and when the infection has 
taken place from a volatile inficiens, or when all signs of outward 
infection fail, the disease might often be mistaken for typhus. As 
the disease progresses, reddish spots appear on the cutis, which trans- 
form into pustules resembling those of variola or pemphigus. These 
pustules often appear in great numbers, and are of varying dimensions. 
They frequently coalesce and form ulcers, giving off an offensive 
odor. Large ulcers often develop on the extremities, which extend 
to the sinews and bones. These cutaneous affections are frequently 
so extensive as to leave scarcely any part of the body uncomplicated. 
Sometimes the joints become tumefied with fluctuating swellings. 
At others these eruptions appear within twenty-four or forty-eight 
hours ; again, only within two, three, or four weeks, after the ap- 
pearance of nasal catarrh, tumefaction of the muscles, pain, etc. 

The mucosae, particularly of the nose, are frequently the seat of 
inflammatory and ulcerative processes. When the nose is compli- 



THE HORSE. 207 

cated, we observe in the beginning a secretion of a thin, viscid, whit- 
ish discharge ; swelling, hyperaemia, and pains in the nose and sur- 
roundings, gradually develop. The nasal discharge is frequently uni- 
lateral, and later becomes thicker, muco-purulent, and offensive. In 
a few cases nodules may be diagnosed. In many cases we can diagnose, 
intra vita?n, the development of pustules and ulcers in the nasal 
mucosa, which in malignant cases lead to erosions of the perichon- 
drium and perforation of septum. The uni- or bilateral nasal dis- 
charge appears often only after two or three weeks, coeval with dif- 
fuse redness of the nose, which may extend over the face and fore- 
head. In few cases the nasal discharge fails, although nodular erup- 
tions take place. 

As in the horse, so in man, we frequently observe that the nasal 
affection appears to be the closing complication of the disease. 

Later, or coeval with the cutaneous eruptions, there develop 
catarrh and inflammatory ulcerative processes in the other mucosae, 
which stand in more or less intimate connection with that of the 
nose, as in the conjunctiva, the mouth, oesophagus, and trachea. In 
some cases abscesses develop in the joints, particularly those of the 
hands. The submaxillary and lingual glands, which often contain 
abscesses, become swollen and painful. The respiratory tract is fre- 
quently the seat of serious complications, such as bronchial catarrh, 
with accompanying symptoms. The pulse is small and frequent ; 
the temperature increases to over 40° C. 

The participation of the nervous system is made evident by 
vertigo, headache, ringing in the ears, want of sleep, uneasiness, 
somnolence, delirium, etc. Albumen is sometimes present in the 
urine. In pregnant females, abortion often takes place. 

Cheonic Glaistdees 

Assumes the above characteristics in varying form and less rapid 
development. The medium duration — recovery is quite frequent, 
slow, and incomplete — extends over four months. 

Pathological Anatomy. — In this regard the phenomena in man 
bear a strong resemblance to those of pyaemia. 

The chief difference between those of man and horses is the 
greater prevalence of tubercular eruptions in the former; other- 
wise we have almost similar conditions, except the greater tendency 
to abscesses in man. 

Diagnosis. — This, when the cause is known, is easy, otherwise 
often very difficult, especially on account of the resemblance of the 
processes to those of pyaemia. 



208 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Prognosis.— This is far more favorable than in the horse, al- 
though in the acute form it is generally fatal. 

Of 38 cases of acute glanders, healing by 1 

Of 7 cases of subacute glanders, healing by 2 

Of 34 cases of chronic glanders, healing by 17 

Therapeutics. — This belongs to medical men. 

Prevention. — Keep down equine glanders, and see to the proper 
instruction of those about horses, that they exercise great care about 
those having glanders, or in which it is suspected. 



PART II. 

THE HISTOEY OF YETEKIKAKY 
MEDICINE. 



In the foregoing pages I have endeavored to place before the 
public some of the principal dangers to which mankind is liable 
from animal diseases themselves, or from parasites which, while in- 
fecting the so-called lower animal organism, do not in some instances 
cause any very serious disturbances ; still, when introduced into the 
human organism, may cause disturbances of a very serious if not 
of an absolutely mortal character. 

The only known means by which prevention of these disturb- 
ances, or maladies, may be hoped for, is by the enactment of laws 
and regulations by the different State governments — which should, 
however, be uniform in all States. These laws and regulations 
should be rigidly executed. Their execution, however, does not 
come within the province of human medicine j> er se - It belongs 
to another branch of medical science, which has been, up to the pres- 
ent time, utterly neglected by the people of this country, whether 
represented by the respective State governments or by the General 
Government at Washington. Coming under the same head, and 
therefore to be considered with it, are the suppression and preven- 
tion of those ravaging animal pests which in past ages have almost 
depopulated the older Continental nations of their animal wealth, 
and which can any day be landed upon our shores ; in fact, as I have 
already shown, some of them are already " domesticated " with us, 
and the sole reason that their real nature and their ravages among 
our animals are not more immediately felt by the American people 
is the utter failure of reliable statistics upon the subject to bring 
it home to every American statesman and citizen as well. 

The Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washington, gave out, for 
the year 1879, a pamphlet entitled " Investigations of Diseases of 
Swine, and Infectious and Contagious Diseases incident to other 

14 



210 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

Classes of Domestic Animals." The title is high-sounding enough, 
but while Messrs. Law and Detmers, veterinarians, give us some 
valuable knowledge with reference to one contagio-infectious dis- 
ease of swine, the so-called "hog-cholera," the "report" is abso- 
lutely wanting in any reliable statistics with reference to the same. 
Numerous medical men have also given contributions with reference 
to this swine-disease, many of which are most absurd : for instance, 
calling it "typhus," and comparing it with the specific infectious 
disease of man known by that name. Yeterinary-Surgeon Det- 
mers also gives a compilation with reference to the glanders of the 
horse. Aside from the pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, no other conta- 
gious disease of our animals is mentioned in the report. This is not 
to be wondered at. In a country where there are very few well- 
educated veterinary surgeons, where there is no appreciation of the 
true value of veterinary science ; in a country where quacks and 
empirics of every form are nourished and appreciated before the 
well-educated practitioners, in only too many instances ; in a coun- 
try where there is no official examination of the products from food- 
producing animals, and where there are neither laws nor regulations 
for the suppression of contagious animal diseases ; in a country boast- 
ing, as it does, of its civilization and the extent of education among 
its people, where there is no well-organized veterinary school, or a 
medical school devoted exclusively to the scientific study and devel- 
opment of science, and regulated by the State— it is not surprising 
that it is impossible for the Government to gather reliable, or any, 
statistics with reference to the devastations caused by pests among 
its animals. 

The prevention of the already described human diseases due to 
causes originating in our domestic animals, the suppression and 
prevention of devastating animal pests, can only be attained by the 
development of veterinary science, and at the hands of scientifically 
educated veterinarians. 

This can only be attained by having a completely organized and 
State-regulated veterinary institute, and for reasons which I shall 
presently give. One national institute is far more in the interests 
of the people of this country than State institutes. 

Before, however, entering upon the discussion of that subject, it 
is not inappropriate to cursorily trace the history of veterinary medi- 
cine from its beginning to our time. The history of veterinary 
medicine per se can be logically divided into two periods : the 
ante-school, or crude, empirical period, extending from the earliest 
antiquity to the year 1762 ; and the scholastic or educational period, 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 211 

extending from that date to our own day. Both of these periods 
are capable of subdivision. The pre-scholastic period may be sub- 
divided into the ante-Greek, the Grseco-Roman, and the period of 
the " Stahlmeisters," " mareschal," or master of the horse, while 
the scholastic period may be divided into the educational-empiric 
and the scientific-educational, which saw its birth about thirty years 
ago. 

" Westward the inarch of empire takes its way ! " So true as 
this is, it is no less true that with the " westward " movement of 
humanity and civilization, the contagious and ravaging pests which 
have preyed and still continue to prey upon a suffering human and 
animal world have kept up a uniform extension. So it is of sci- 
ence. So it is with the endeavor of medical science — prevention. 
So it will be with that branch of medical science which I am en- 
deavoring, however unsuccessfully, faithfully to rej)resent — veteri- 
nary medicine. 

Philologists have taught us that the civilized races of the day 
took their rise from the Aryans, a pastoral people who conquered 
the nomad tribes living on the high plateaus of the Caucasus Mount- 
ains in the north of India. These Aryans attained a wonderful de- 
gree of civilization, which is detailed to us in records of an age some 
1000 years b. c. With their civilization was mixed an immense 
amount of superstition, a great awe and reverence for all the start- 
ling phenomena of nature, as well as all natural creations. These 
records are ingrafted in the beautiful poems of the " Artharva," 
" Rig " and " Ayur Yeda," the last meaning the " Science of Life," 
and the great war-poem, the " Mahabharata." 

The reverence which these people bore to their Brahmans, as the 
ministers of their gods, and their worship of the sacred cow, and 
tender care of all animal life, are well known to the student of these 
ancient writings. With suffering comes naturally an immediate 
search for relief. Behold, then, the birth of empiricism ! The re- 
sults of these experiences were handed down from mouth to mouth ; 
these sayings being frequently collected and recited for the benefit 
of the people by the priests and wise men. The wealth of these 
early people, and also of many of their immediate descendants of 
our day, was in their immense herds of grazing animals. Fleming, 
" Animal Plagues," says : " The immense steppes of Central Asia 
still furnish us with examples of this condition of the unsettled 
races who wander over them with their countless herds." A recent 
traveler * in that region of the world pleasantly describes some of 

* Atkinson, " Oriental and Western Siberia." 



212 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

the scenes he witnessed among them : " Just as the day dawned I 
turned out to examine our position, when I discovered the snowy 
peaks of the Sian-Shan. They appeared cold and ghost-like against 
the deep-blue sky ; presently they were tipped with the sun's rays, 
and shone forth like rubies. I sat on the ground, watching the 
changes with much interest, till the whole landscape was lighted 
up. Immediately near me was a busy scene ; on one side the men 
were milking the mares, to the number of more than one hundred, 
and carrying leathern pails of milk to the 'koumiss' bag in the 
' yourt,' the young foals being secured in two long lines to pegs 
driven in the ground. In front, and on the opposite side, the 
women were milking cows, sheep, and goats, and a little distance 
beyond these the camels were suckling their young. Around the 
camp the steppe was filled with animal life. The sultan told me 
that there were more than two thousand horses, half the number 
of cows and oxen, two hundred and eighty camels, and more than 
six thousand sheep and goats. The screams of the camels, the bel- 
lowing of the bulls, the neighing of the horses, and bleating of the 
sheep and goats, formed a pastoral chorus such as I had never heard 
in Europe." On another occasion he writes : " All were out with 
the dawn, and then appeared a scene highly interesting to me. The 
whole of the herds are brought to the £ aoul ' at night, where they 
are most carefully guarded by watchmen and dogs placed in every 
direction, rendering it almost impossible to enter any ' aoul ' with- 
out detection. The noise at first was almost intolerable ; there was 
the sharp cry of the camels, the neighing of the horses, the bellow- 
ing of the bulls, and the barking of the dogs, and shouting of the 
men. I counted one hundred and six camels, including their young; 
there were more than two thousand horses, one thousand oxen and 
cows, and six thousand sheep and goats. Even these, large as the 
number may appear, were far short of the total number belonging 
to the patriarch chief. It was, indeed, a wonderful sight, when they 
were marched off in different directions, spreading themselves out 
in living streams as they moved slowly along the steppe." 

Disease then, as now, especially the ravaging pests, robbed these 
early agriculturists, not only of their means of sustenance, but of 
their wealth. As in our day, when such visitations endanger the 
animal property of the people of a country, so in those by-gone 
days did our Aryan fathers appeal to the gods for protection, and 
make choice offerings from the fairest and best of their flocks for 
their amelioration. They knew nothing of prevention, in a modern 
sense. The gods were manifesting their anger, and wreaking their 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE, 213 

wrath on the children of men. Appeasement was their only source ; 
and, at the cessation of the ravages, choice offerings of thankful- 
ness betokened the gratitude of suffering man. 

"Charaka" and "Susruta" are the names which have come to 
us of the two earliest medical authors in the Sanskrit tongue. 

The earliest source from which our knowledge of Indian medi- 
cine is derived is taken from the hymns of the "Eig-Veda," about 
1500 b. c* In the " Artharva -Yeda " diseases are looked upon as 
evil spirits which overcome human beings, or as the results of the 
displeasure of the gods, or as the influences of the sorceries of wicked 
men. The most wonderful healing attributes were accorded to the 
soma-plant. The Aswin, a twin god, were looked upon as Hygeia 
by the Greeks, i. e., as the gods of health : they made the lap of 
woman fruitful ; they knew the plants which were endowed with 
health-giving properties ; they kept the altar-fires burning. At a 
later period they are described as the physicians of the gods. Be- 
sides them, the god Agni, the god of fire, was looked upon as the 
new awakening of spring ; Eudra, of the air, the winds, and the 
earth. 

These early authors also ascribed healing qualities to the action 
of cold water : 

" Two winds move slowly here and there, from ocean, and from distant lands ; 
Power move thee, move thy suffering forth ; 

Wind, move healing this one to, and move, wind, his suffering forth. 
The gods have thee hither sent with all the means of healing overspent." 

" Full of healing power is the watery wave ; the water cools the fever's heat : 
Full of healing power against all pests, health bring to thee the water's flood." 

" The good magi are under the protection of gods, in order that 
they may combat evil spirits." 

The essence of life is embodied in the air (the respiration). 
Vital Power, Yital Spirit, are often spoken of. The doctor per se 
is only mentioned in the more recent sections of the "Eig-Yeda." 
" The wishes of men vary : the wagoner seeks for wood, the doctor 
for patients, and the priest for libations." 

In the Brahmanical period of the Aryan people, the priests ap- 
pear to have also busied themselves with the practice of healing. 
At this period the doctor seems to have taken a much-respected 
place among these people. A completely educated doctor must 

* This information with regard to ancient medical history is taken from Haeser, 
" Geschichte der Medicin." 



214 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

command all the principles and practice of medicine. Susruta says 
that " the practitioner who does not perfectly unite in himself a 
knowledge of both surgical and inner diseases is as a bird with 
but one wing." 

The studies of the medical student began with the twelfth and 
ended with the sixteenth or seventeenth year. At no one time 
should a teacher instruct more than four or at the most six stu- 
dents. Charaka gives the rules for instruction in detail, and the 
requirements necessary to both teacher and student, in a manner not 
unworthy of imitation, in many respects, by the same classes in our 
own day and country. 

He says : " The student must, above all, pay great attention to se- 
lection of the most suitable text-books from the great number which 
are presented to him ; he must select a teacher who is familiar with 
all the scientific, technical, and moral qualifications of his profes- 
sion. He must devote himself unceasingly to the study of the text- 
books of his profession. The teacher must not be less circumspect 
in the selection of students of honorable birth, morality, physique, 
and intellectual and manual ability. The students must begin their 
studies in winter, and at a time when the moon is becoming full ; 
on a day known in the calendar as favorable, and at a time when a 
favorable constellation is in the ascendency ; they must be introduced 
into their profession in the presence of the holy Brahmans and the 
doctors, and with the offering of milk, butter, prayers, and sayings 
of wise men, and presents to his teachers. The celebration should 
end with an address to the students by the teachers, in which they 
should be cautioned to be chaste, modest, and reticent, to wear a 
beard, to speak the truth only, to eat no meat ; above all things 
should they be obedient to their teacher, and endeavor to gain favor 
in his eyes. The practitioner who wishes to have a successful prac- 
tice and to acquire an honorable name, must look to the health of 
the living ; above all, that of the holy Brahmans and the sacred cow, 
and pray daily at the time of his uprising and retiring. He must 
seek, with all the strength of his soul, to restore the sick to health ; 
though his own life be called in sacrifice thereby, he dare not 
on any account neglect the sick ; he must never seek to ingratiate 
himself with women. In dress and all external things he must be 
simple, no drinker, and must always remain distant from bad com- 
pany. In speech the practitioner must be gentle, clear, and pleas- 
ant, speaking only to the point, and with moderation ; he must 
weigh seriously the appropriate time and locality ; must be diligent 
in reflection, and seek in every way to increase in knowledge. He 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 215 

must never offer help to persons that have made themselves disagree- 
able to the king, or to the people ; or offer assistance to deformed 
people, deteriorated, unruly, or wild persons, or even to women, 
when their husband is absent. The student must never accept a 
present from a wife, except with the permission of the husband. 
When he enters a residence, it must be in the company of an au- 
thorized person ; he must be well clad, and enter with bowed head, 
reflecting, and with full dignity take due cognizance of all the sur- 
roundings. Once in the sick-chamber, his whole attention must be 
given to the treatment of the patient. The things going on in the 
house of the patient must never be advertised abroad ; he must 
never inform a patient that a fatal termination to his illness is ap- 
proaching. The most learned man must never seek to impress upon 
others the idea of his own importance. Many persons withdraw 
themselves from such men, however capable they may be. The sci- 
ence of medicine is, in all truth, not so easy of acquisition. He 
must ever be willing to learn from the experience and knowledge 
of others. To the earnest man the whole world is full of teaching ; 
only to the ignorant is she an enemy. With this in remembrance, 
even the words of an enemy may be conducive to the good of many. 
He must religiously observe every duty to the gods, the fire, the 
holy Brahmans, the Guru, the aged, and the holy teacher. When 
this is done, then shalt thou be favored by the fire, the fluids, and 
the gods. When not, thy life shall be unsuccessful. When this 
has all been said, the teacher shall respond, ' So shall it be.' " 

Susruta gave similar advice to that already given by Charaka, 
to the students of medicine. He says : " They must utterly abstain 
from love and hate, from anger and laziness, and, from greed for gain. 
They must pay consideration to external appearances, and have 
care that their clothing is appropriate and cleanly. They must 
be servants of the truth. They must show the same respect as to 
their parents, to the Brahmans, to their teacher in medicine, to their 
friends, and to all those who turn to them for help. The doctor 
must wear his hair short ; his nails must be clean and closely cut ; 
he must never leave his house except with his cane or sun-shade ; 
above all, must he avoid all undue intimacy with women. He must 
be handsome, well built, amiable, earnest, but without self-conceit, 
friendly, and full of spirit ; his speech must be soft yet encourag- 
ing, as that of a friend ; his heart must be pure and honorable ; he 
must be a pattern of cleverness and sagacity, and must love his pa- 
tients better than relations, friends, or his parents. One may have 
fear of a brother, a mother, or a friend, but never of his doctor. 



216 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

The teacher shall read from the holy books step by step, and verse 
by verse; he must speak distinctly, but without undue exertion, 
neither too rapidly nor too slowly, neither through the nose, nor 
with any indications of impatience." 

The theoretical education of the student took place in the open 
air, frequently in groves. The practical instruction consisted in the 
visiting of patients, the practice of surgical operations upon models 
made of wood covered with wax, also on soft fruits, and the punc- 
ture of leather sacks ; the extraction of teeth was practiced on the 
dead body and upon animals. The students also accompanied the 
teacher on journeys in search of medicines, and to study the dis- 
eases of other regions. In order to practice his profession, it was 
necessary that the student had the consent of the rajah (ruler), who 
watched over the execution of the regulations for the practice of 
medicine. 

We see here that these Aryans were further advanced in some 
things even than the enlightened citizens of this boasted country, 
for they did not allow even the graduated student to practice medi- 
cine without the consent of the recognized authority ; and, further, 
the practice of medicine was regulated by the authorities. Quacks 
and empirics probably, then as now, were vampires of civilization, 
sucking the life-blood of the people ; but, nevertheless, the people 
had means of distinguishing the accredited man from the swindler, 
and the title of " doctor " was worth something more than the paper 
it was written on, which is not at present the case in the United 
States of America. 

" Not seldom, however, through the carelessness of the rajah, 
unsuitable doctors were admitted to practice. Such men flatter the 
friends of the sick, are very attentive, take less pay, are boldfaced, 
and never attribute the poor results of their practice to their own 
ignorance. The educated practitioner must flee the company of 
such men as a thicket full of ravenous animals. The reward of 
the practitioner must be ordered according to the means of the pa- 
tients. It is dishonorable to demand pay of Brahmans, relations, 
friends, and the unfortunate. The doctor shall take no other pay 
from women than refreshment. The kings have especial doctors ? 
who take part in the wars ; others must be present in the kitchen 
to prevent poisoning." 

In the "Laws of Manu" it is written that "the doctor who 
mishandles animals shall receive the lowest, while he who mistreats 
human beings shall receive the highest punishment." 

The Indian doctors possessed but little real knowledge of anato- 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 217 

my. They, however, made studies upon the human body, but in a 
singular and unfruitful manner. The body must be that of a healthy 
man, not too old, not deformed, and from a person that had not 
died from poisoning or the devastations of a long and wearing dis- 
ease. The body must lie for seven days and nights in the waters 
of a brook, and then the outer parts must be removed by brushing 
with twigs. Instead of a description of the different parts of the 
body, we find numerous calculations, measurements, and classifica- 
tions of the parts. According to Susruta, the human body consists 
of seven elements, and seven skins or membranes, three hundred 
bones, twenty-four nerves, three fluids, one hundred and seven 
joints, nine hundred ligaments, ninety sinews (the nails were looked 
upon as the endings of the same), forty principal vessels, seven hun- 
dred branches, and five hundred muscles. The navel was looked 
upon as the central point of the nerves and vessels. The cardinal 
elements, air, gall, and mucus, find frequent mention. The air is 
situated below the navel, the gall between the navel and heart, and 
the mucus above the heart. To the elements making up the human 
organism was also added ether, out of which sprang light, out of 
light generated water, and out of them both earth. The seven or- 
ganic products of these cardinal elements were the chyle, blood, 
flesh, cellular tissue, bones, the medullary substance, and the semen. 
The blood generated from the chyle. The chyle is an aqueous 
fluid; it becomes red in the spleen and liver. Milk formed the 
exclusive article of food to the end of the first year ; to the third 
year, milk and rice ; and to the fifteenth, rice alone, when a mixed 
diet was allowed. The best means for the preservation of health 
are the weekly offering of an emetic, monthly a purgative, and twice 
yearly (at the change' of seasons) blood-letting. Diseases were 
classed as natural and supernatural. Diseases were frequently 
caused by sin. The most important diseases were due to a want of 
or surplus of action of the cardinal elements upon the physiological 
elements — the chyle, blood, etc. The predominance of one cardinal 
element over the others gave rise to the different temperaments. 
The soul seeks to equalize the disharmony, dyscrasies of the cardi- 
nal elements, by which disease is produced. Disease is, therefore, 
a disturbance of the activity of the soul occasioned by abnormalities 
of the cardinal elements. The air contained in the body is the 
cause of eighty different diseases. To these belong the diseases of 
the nerves — tetanus, trismus, chorea, also leprosy. Among the dis- 
eases of the urinary organs one is surprised to find that a sweet and 
albuminous urine is mentioned. Diabetes was considered incurable. 



218 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

A knowledge of poisons and their action is an indispensable part 
of the education of the doctor, as the food is often poisoned by the 
enemies of the ruler, wicked women, and unthankful servants. 
These ancient Indian doctors seem to have been well acquainted 
with hydrophobia, as the action of the bite of the rabid dog, fox, 
jackal, wolf, bear, and tiger. The treatment consisted in appro- 
priate local applications to the wound, and the inward offering of 
antidotes. 

In this regard Wise * says : 

" The Bites of Mad Dogs. — When dogs, jackals, foxes, wolves, 
bears, or tigers, become mad, they foam at the mouth, which re- 
mains open, their tails hang down, they do not hear or see well, 
and saliva flows from their mouths. In such a state they snap at 
and bite one another. The part that is bitten becomes senseless, 
blood flows from the wound, which becomes black, and other ap- 
pearances are observed, as after a wound with a poisoned arrow. 
The person bitten makes the same hind of noise and movements as 
that of the animal which has bitten him. When such a person sees 
the shape of the animal which has bitten him, either in water or in 
a glass, it is an unfavorable symptom. It is also unfavorable when 
the person is afraid of water, and dreads either seeing or hearing 
it. This is called hydrophobia, the fear of water. When the per- 
son dreams of the rabid animal, it is unfavorable. Toward the ter- 
mination of the disease the person is convulsed, becomes insensible 
and powerless, and dies." 

" In all such cases the first part of treatment should be to scari- 
fy the part and squeeze out the blood, after which the part is to be 
washed and burned by means of hot ' ghee.' Then apply to the 
wounded part a mixture of certain antidotes, and give old ' ghee ' 
internally. Errhines are also to be given with the milk of the arka- 
plant, Calatropis gigantea. Susruta recommends the following, 
which is to be used both internally and externally : Take of ' Shir- 
isha,' ' Kustha,' ' Haridra,' ' Shita,' ' Sharshapa,' of each forty ratas, 
mix in a pint of water, and boil until reduced one fourth. During 
the treatment the patient should be kept in a cool situation, without 
any water. When the symptoms disappear, the person should then 
bathe, and on the third and fifth days the above is to be administered 
in half the dose given at first. He is then to take rice and milk. 
It is recommended in these cases to act powerfully upon the system 
by strong medicines before the poison has produced its constitu- 
tional effects. After the infliction of the wound, and before it has 

* " History of Medicine in India,." vol. i, p. 280. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 219 

produced any general effects, the free use of water in bathing is 
recommended, and the bowels are to be afterward opened by purga- 
tives and emetics, followed by errhines to clear the passages." 

The perfection to which the Aryan doctors developed the prac- 
tice of surgery is surprising indeed. They made many useful 
instruments, catheterized the bladder, removed stones, punctured 
the abdomen, originated plastic operations upon the nose, ear, and 
lips, set fractured bones, performed " laparotomy," and made skill- 
ful operations upon the eye. The Csesarean operation was per- 
formed on the death of the mother to save the infant. 

The beginners of veterinary medicine, or, rather, those who first 
practiced the healing art upon animals, were undoubtedly the shep- 
herds and herdsmen, who were intrusted with their care. This em- 
ployment was frequently followed in families, and the results of 
experience thus gained were doubtless transmitted from father to 
son for generations. These early veterinary empirics must fre- 
quently have come in friendly intercourse, and thus the results of 
mutual experiences were interchanged and criticised ; so the fund of 
empirical knowledge gradually increased, until the sum of these 
experiences was finally gathered on parchment, and then, with the 
birth of printing, into books. While many of these men were un- 
doubtedly keen observers of nature, there is no doubt that they 
were also great admirers of the marvelous, and equally superstitious, 
so that many most absurd superstitions as to the causes of disease 
crept into their sayings and writings. 

Charaka is said to have written a work upon the diseases of ani- 
mals, but I have vainly searched for any quotations from it. That 
the Jews and Egyptians were acquainted with many forms of animal 
disease must be known to every reader of the Bible, for the plagues 
with which Jehovah punished the Egyptians, and through which 
they were robbed of their cattle, are most graphically described by 
Moses. The oldest Egyptian monuments bear upon them carvings 
illustrating the treatment of animals. 

The Greeks possessed, at a very early date, a more or less ex- 
tended literature with reference to the treatment of the diseases of 
animals. "With the blooming of Greek culture, medical art took an 
active move forward. Hippocrates, 460-377 b. c, the honored 
father of medicine and the compiler of all the knowledge which ex- 
isted up to his time, was quite well acquainted with the coarser 
anatomy of some of the lower animals, and we find several notices 
in his writings which warrant us in assuming that he was not unac- 
quainted with some of their diseases. In speaking of hydrothorax, 



220 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

or water in the chest, he says, "It is a disease which is also fre- 
quently met with among oxen, sheep, and swine." * He had proba- 
bly met with it in these animals much more frequently than others, 
because of their frequent use in the sacrifices at the altars of the 
gods at the Hellenic temples. In another place he says : " In 
cattle, the thighs are apt to become dislocated at the hip-joint, 
when they are particularly lean, which occurs at the end of winter, 
at which time they are particularly subject to dislocations. Homer 
has well remarked that of all beasts oxen suffer the most at that 
season, and especially those employed at the plow. In them, there- 
fore, dislocations happen most frequently." f The influence which 
Hippocrates exerted upon medical science for a thousand years 
after his death is scarcely appreciated by the public, and by far not 
sufficiently esteemed by his successors of the present day, many 
of whom have not read his works, notwithstanding their accessibil- 
ity to English readers, by the above-mentioned excellent and critical 
edition, for which we are indebted to the Sydenham Society for 
publication. The young practitioner of to-day seems to be carried 
away by the desire for new things, and all sorts of new remedies 
are eagerly sought after and experimented with, much to the neg- 
lect of the study of the fathers of medicine. The present genera- 
tion is emphatically one of research, but it is a great and harm- 
ful error to think that the microscope and crucible can reveal all 
that is to be known of disease. The works of the fathers of 
medicine often excelled those of the present day in clinical ob- 
servation, in the exact description of the intra-vital phenomena of 
disease, and in detailing the results of experiences gained at the 
sick-bed from the use of medicines. At present a healthy re- 
action is beginning in this direction, and the microscope furor is 
being toned down within the limits of practical possibility, notwith- 
standing a New York enthusiast purposes to tell us whether two 
given persons are compatible for marriage, so far as the production 
of healthy offspring is concerned, by the microscopic appearance of 
the granulations in the protoplasma of the white or colorless blood- 
corpuscles. That such an assertion is but the utterance of a vision- 
ary and untrustworthy observer scarcely needs to be mentioned. 

Hippocrates,^: also called the great, is said to have come from a 
family of doctors, descending from JEsculapius and Herucles. 
Little is known of his life, many relations concerning the same being 
mixed up with myths and impossible extravagances. He was, how- 

* Haeser, he. cit, p. 173. f Works, Sydenham edition, vol. ii, p. 5*76. 

% Wunderlich, " History of Medicine." 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 221 

ever, greatly honored, and both practiced and taught medicine 
among his countrymen. He was the author of many books, but 
few of those which have come down to us are looked upon as 
genuine ; many others attributed to him contain much of his teach- 
ing, however. It is a mistake to designate him as the founder of a 
new system of medicine : he was simply a harvester in the fields of 
medicine, but also a keen observer of the phenomena of disease. He 
himself says that " he who scorns or throws away the past, and seeks 
to make a new way and new theories, or thinks that he has found 
such, is either a deceiver or is himself deceived" — words which 
should not be without due appreciation by the ^Esculapians of the 
present day and generation. The followers are many, the discover- 
ers of new truths but isolated phenomena in the march of human 
progress. 

He was a grand observer of nature. He made no new system, 
but was bitterly opposed to hypotheses. He looked upon the living 
organism in the Epidoclesian sense, as composed of four cardinal ele- 
ments, which he named blood, mucus, black gall, and yellow gall. 
His pathology was simple in the extreme. When these cardinal 
elements bore a proper relation to each other in the living organism, 
a crasis or normality existed ; any disturbance of this normal condi- 
tion, any preponderance of one of these elements, either as a whole 
or locally, produced abnormality, dyscrasis. He laid but little value 
upon theoretic discussions : " When any one can give a better ex- 
planation, it suits me equally well ; such ability is but the result of a 
glib tongue." His anatomical knowledge was quite limited, and he 
seems never to have made studies upon the human body. He laid 
great stress upon the value of knowledge with regard to all the ex- 
ternal phenomena presented by the diseased organism. The condi- 
tions, in disease, of many internal organs, did not, however, escape 
his attention — such as the swelling of the spleen, and its subsequent 
retraction, in various forms of infectious disease. " The practitioner 
should be able to recognize the conditions presented to him, without 
the necessity of referring to the relations of the patient ; ... if 
perspiration occurs in a fevered patient, without remission of the 
fever, the disease will be lengthened; the fever increases when 
the teeth have a viscid coating ; . . . a disease in which sleep has a 
deleterious influence is deadly ; when the patient is, however, im- 
proved by sleep, it is to be looked upon as a favorable symptom ; . . . 
sleep and sleeplessness, when present to an abnormal degree, are 
evil symptoms ; . . . when a convalescent person has a good appe- 
tite, but does not improve thereby, it is a bad symptom ; ... he 



222 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

who would correctly prognosticate as to who will die or who will 
recover, whether the disease will be of long or short duration, must 
know well all the phenomena, and be well versed as to their re- 
spective value." 

His manner of treatment was well considered, and he generally 
avoided heroic means. He placed great stress upon the value of 
dietetics, which should be adapted to the individuality of the pa- 
tient, his constitution and habits. He was, according to his idea of 
the cardinal elements, much addicted to the employment of local 
means, by which the supposed centralization of a given element was 
to be equalized or the surplus removed ; therefore, we find in his 
writings many directions for local bleeding and applications. He 
invented quite a number of surgical instruments ; performed tre- 
panning of the cranium, set bones, and reduced luxations. He 
highly prized cauterization, and his last aphorism reads : " What 
medicine will not cure, the iron will ; what the iron will not cure, 
fire will ; what fire can not cure, must be considered as incurable." 

But, above all Greek writers of antiquity celebrated in the field 
of medicine, none equaled, in a knowledge of the anatomy of ani- 
mals, that mighty intellect which has been the wonder of humanity 
for generations, and which had not its equal in the arena of natural 
science until long after the middle ages — Aristotle. 

"Aristotle was born at Stagyra in Macedonia, in the year 384, 
and died 326 b. c. He was undoubtedly the greatest thinker of his 
time, and united in himself all the knowledge which then existed. 
His father, Nichomachus, was body-surgeon to Amyntas III, of 
Macedon, the father of Philip. At seventeen years of age, Aris- 
totle went to Athens to study under the immortal Plato, who recog- 
nized his great genius, and called him the brightest spirit of his 
school. Aristotle soon separated himself from his teacher, and be- 
gan to oppose the doctrines which he taught ; he went to Mace- 
don, and became the tutor of Alexander the Great. When the 
latter went upon his conquests into Asia, Aristotle returned to 
Athens, where he appeared in the character of teacher, Alexander 
supporting him, and for his studies giving him the immense advan- 
tages offered by the collections of curiosities made in his foreign 
conquests. The results of his investigations are collected in his 
writings and speak for themselves. On Alexander's death the ene- 
mies of Aristotle became powerful enough to cause his banishment 
from Athens ; he was declared a heretic, a disbeliever in the gods, 
and so deadly was the pursuit of his enemies that he finally killed 
himself in his sixty-third year. His body was brought to the place 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 223 

of his nativity, his countrymen erecting a monument to his memory. 
Aristotle may be justly styled the founder of zootomy, the anatomy 
of animals. His writings, subsequent to his death, suffered a rather 
changeable destiny : they fell at first into the hands of his heirs ; 
then they were buried and barely escaped destruction from decay 
and worms ; afterward they were conveyed to Athens, and finally to 
Eome by the Eomans on the capture of Athens, and from there 
they have been dispersed over the world, but not without many 
falsifications and changes." * 

His anatomical descriptions^ so far as they had reference to 
man, were limited to topographical descriptions of the external 
parts ; the formation of the internal was, as he himself says, little 
known, but they were described according to analogy, from the ex- 
aminations of similar organs in the lower animals. He describes 
the brain and its membranous surroundings, as well as its ventri- 
cles, cavities ; also the optic nerves in their passage from the brain 
to the eye ; on the other hand, he denied any connection between 
the brain and the ear ; he describes also the larynx, uvula, epiglot- 
tis, the trachea and its bifurcations in the lungs, also the Eustachian 
tubes, but had an incorrect idea with reference to the connection 
between the heart and lungs; he described the oesophagus, and 
its passage into the stomach, as well as the extension of the latter 
to the intestines; also the epiploon and mesenterium. Notwith- 
standing much study, it was impossible for him to come to any defi- 
nite conclusions with reference to the vascular system ; he looked 
upon the heart as the center of the vessels, but described only three 
cavities in that organ, missing the septum between the auricles ; 
he notices the aorta and vena cava, as well as the main arteries 
and veins of the head and neck ; also the diaphragm, liver, gall- 
bladder, kidneys, and their pelvis, the ureters and veins of the kid- 
neys, the urinary bladder and urethra, the testicles and their vessels, 
as well as the same organs in the female, and the uterus. It is 
doubtful, however, if he knew of the relation of the secretion of 
the kidneys to the bladder, or of the organ at present considered as 
the rudimentary male uterus. 

Aristotle had very imperfect ideas of the circulation : the blood 
was generated in the heart and from there dispersed over the organ- 
ism ; it sprang, coagulated, out of the vessels, and was of variable 
color. The respiration served as a cooler to the organism — its or- 
gans are the lungs and gills ; his incorrect idea of the connection 

* Schraeder-Hering, " Bibliograph. Lexicon f. Thierarzte," p. 16. 
f Aubert and Wimmer, " Aristotle's Thierkunde," Leipsic, 1868. 



224 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

between the lungs and heart gave him the conception that the air 
came into the heart ; he compared the lungs to an air-sac, and does 
not seem to have had any conception of the changes which take 
place in the blood by their means. His views with reference to 
digestion, and the changes which the elements of the organism un- 
dergo, were very crude indeed. His description of the senses, see- 
ing, hearing, smell, and taste, is surprisingly clear and explicit. 
He looked upon the muscles as the organs of sensitiveness, and not 
of movement ; the sinews as motor organs, and the heart as the cen- 
ter of movement. He made an astonishing number of clever obser- 
vations with regard to the generation and development of animals, 
and studied the same in the hen's egg ; the formation of the heart, 
brain, and eye, allantois, and chorion ; the duration of gestation in 
many different species. His observations with reference to the 
instincts of animals are often surprisingly correct, as well as with 
regard to the variations in their habits of life. Aristotle also de- 
scribed quite a number of diseases among animals, and, as the sub- 
ject is not without instructive interest, I take the liberty of giving 
a very free translation of them here.* 

" As to the diseases of quadrupeds, swine have three different 
diseases. One is known as ' bronchos,' and consists in an inflam- 
mation of the air-tubes and 'the masticating organs ; it, however, 
frequently complicates other parts of the porcine organism ; some- 
times the feet become diseased, and at others the ears. The dis- 
ease develops rapidly, the swine soon losing their appetite. The 
herdsmen know of no other treatment than to cut out the diseased 
part at once. Aside from this, two other diseases occur in swine, 
both being known by the name of ' kraura.' In one of them we 
may perceive pain and depression of the head, and in the other 
diarrhoea is the most frequent phenomenon. This last is reputed 
to be incurable ; the first is, however, cured by rubbing the snout 
with wine, as well as washing the interior of the same with that 
material. In this disease, also, but few recover, as it generally 
ends fatally in from three to four days. Swine suffer most from 
' bronchos ' when the summer is very fruitful and the swine very 
fat. Mulberries and plenty of warm baths are said to have a 
beneficial effect ; scarification of the tongue is said also to be re- 
sorted to. The swine are measly when the flesh of the limbs, 
neck, and shoulders is soft; in these places the measles must be 
sought for. The flesh has a sweet taste when it harbors measles, 
at the same time it is soft and watery. One can easily tell when 
* A. and W., chapters xx, xxii, p. 181. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 225 

the swine have measles, for they are to be found under the tongue. 
Measly swine can not keep their hind-feet quiet; they lose the 
measles after having fed upon ' tipha,' which also helps their con- 
dition. The best food to nourish swine is peas and figs, but one 
must not give them one kind of food, as mixed diet is best for 
them. It is said that acorns are greedily devoured by swine, but 
that they make them have soft and watery flesh. When in a 
pregnant condition too many acorns canse them to abort, as they 
also do sheep. So far as we know, swine are the only animals 
that harbor measles. 

" Dogs also suffer from three diseases, known as ' rabies,' ' ky- 
nanche,' and ' podagra.' Rabies puts them into fits of rage, during 
which they bite furiously, and all animals bitten by them when in 
this condition also become mad, with the exception of man. This 
disease kills the dogs, as well as all animals bitten by them, vrith the 
exception of man. ' Kynanche ' is also deadly to dogs, and from 
'podagra' but few recover. Camels are also subject to rabies. Of 
all other animals, the elephant alone is exempted from this disease, 
but it is subject to tympanitis." 

" Cattle living in herds are subject to two diseases, known as 
' podagra ' and ' krauros.' In the first, the feet become swollen, 
but they do not die from it, nor do they lose their hoofs ; they be- 
come better when one covers their horns with hot pitch. In ' krau- 
ros,' their breath is hot and respiration accelerated ; this is called 
fever in men, but ' krauros ' in cattle. The signs of this disease are 
drooping ears and loss of appetite ; they die rapidly, and the lungs 
are gangrenous upon examination. 

" Horses which live upon pastures are subject to no other disease 
than ' podagra.' When afflicted with this disease they sometimes 
lose their hoofs ; but, when this is the case, new ones soon develop, 
for, as the new hoof grows down, the old one is shed. Among the 
signs of this disease is swelling of the right testicle, or a corrugated 
condition of the skin between the nostrils. They are also subject 
to a disease which is called ' eilos,' which is characterized by the 
animals placing the four feet together under the body. When 
horses go for some days without eating, and then become crazy, one 
has to resort to bleeding and castration. They are also subject to 
1 tetanus,' a disease by which all the vessels, as well as the head and 
neck, become stiffened, and the animals move stiff -legged. They 
soon become purulent. Another disease to which they are subject 
is called ' krithian,' indicated by a soft palate and hot breath. These 
diseases are incurable, when they do not cease of themselves, which 

15 



226 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

is also the case in the disease called ' nymphian,' in which the horse 
becomes stiff when one blows np its nose, or depresses the head ; 
when any one tries to ride them they go in circles until stopped. 
They always depress the head when rabid. Other signs of the same 
are that they depress the ears upon the mane, and again elevate 
them ; that they become weak and snort much. Conditions con- 
nected with pain of the heart are also incurable : in this the animals 
have tucked-up flanks, or the bladder becomes displaced, which is 
easily recognized from the inability of the horse to micturate, and 
that they draw their legs up and stamp with their feet. According 
to those who should know, horses and sheep suffer from all the dis- 
eases common to man. A poison known as ' sandarac ' kills not 
only the horse but all draught-animals. It is given in water. A 
pregnant horse aborts when it smells the smoke from a blown-out 
candle ; the same effect is also occasionally observed in women 
when in the same condition. Horses love meadows and swamps. 
They drink gladly of dirty water, and when the water is clear they 
stir up the bottom with their feet, and then bathe in it, for these 
animals generally bathe gladly and love water. Cattle, on the con- 
trary, do not drink freely of water which is unclean and warm. 

" The ass suffers especially from one disease, which is known as 
' melis.' It at first attacks the head, a viscid, yellow slime running 
from the nostrils ; when the disease extends to the lungs it is deadly, 
but when limited to the head it is not so. Of all animals of its 
kind, the ass can bear cold the least, and thrives, therefore, in warm 
climates. 

" The elephant is subject to tympanitis, and when thus afflicted 
can neither micturate nor pass faeces. When it eats earth (?) at in- 
tervals, it becomes weak ; but when it eats it constantly, it does not 
seem to harm it. Sometimes it swallows stones. It also occasion- 
ally suffers from diarrhoea, and is healed by giving it warm water, 
and hay which has been dipped in honey. "When suffering from 
want of sleep they become weak, but strength returns when the 
shoulders are rubbed with warm water, salt, and oil. When troubled 
with pains in the shoulder, they can be helped by placing roasted 
pork upon the afflicted part. Some elephants will drink oil, others 
not. When a fragment of iron penetrates their body, it is said that 
it can be driven out by giving them oil, but those who will not drink 
it willingly must be given the oil mixed with roots." 

The fame of the noted Greek general, Xenophon (349-259 b. a), 
is not alone limited to the remarkable retreat of the brave ten thou- 
sand, for his writings upon the horse and horsemanship have given 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 227 

him a no less lasting reputation. Fleming * says of him : " This 
celebrated cavalry-officer appears to have carefully studied the char- 
acter of the horse, and all the precepts which he gives in his treatise 
on horsemanship are dictated by an amount of wisdom and hu- 
manity which has not, perhaps, been excelled since his day. The 
safety and comfort of that animal and its rider were ever before 
him ; his teachings were principally directed to make the horse pe- 
culiarly adapted to service in war. He displays great judgment 
when specifying the proper form and disposition of the parts which 
collectively make up the nearest approach to a perfect horse, and 
markedly shows to what a high degree, in that distant age, this kind 
of knowledge was cultivated ; indeed, from his writings we are led to 
infer that in his time, and perhaps long before, there were accom- 
plished horse-breakers and public riding-masters, as well as men who 
were excellent judges of the qualities of the horse. In advising as 
to the good ' points ' to be sought for in a horse, he employs the 
clearest terms to express his meaning. ' A person,' he says, ' may 
form his opinion of the feet by first examining the hoofs ; for thick 
or strong hoofs are much more conducive to firmness than thin ones ; 
and it must not escape his notice whether the hoofs are high or low, 
as well before as behind ; for, in high hoofs, what is called the frog 
is high above the ground, and low ones tread equally on the strong- 
est and weakest parts of the hoof, like in-kneed men, or like crip- 
ples among men, who limp on parts which were never intended by 
nature to support them.' He says, further: 'As attention must 
be paid to the horse's food and exercise, that his body may be vig- 
orous, so must care be taken of his feet. Damp and smooth stable- 
floors injure even naturally good hoofs, and to prevent them from 
being damp they ought to be sloping ; to prevent them from being 
smooth they should have irregular-shaped stones inserted in the 
ground, close to one another, similar to a horse's hoof in size ; for 
such floors give firmness to the feet of horses that stand upo * them. 
. . . The ground outside the stable may be put into excellent con- 
dition, and serve to strengthen the horse's feet, if a person throws 
clown in it four or five measures of round stones, each large enough 
to fill the two hands, and each about a pound (?) in weight ; they 
should be surrounded with an iron rim, so that they may not be 
scattered ; for, as the horse stands upon them, he will be in much 
the same condition as if he were to travel part of every day upon a 
stony road. The feet of horses that have been hardened by ex- 
ercise will be superior on rough ground to those which are not 

* "Horseshoes and Horseshoeing," p. 21. 



228 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

habituated to it ; as persons that are sound in their limbs, to those 
who are lame.' " 

Among later Greek writers upon the domestic animals, we find 
the name of Absyrtus, and a veterinary, Hippocrates, who lived 
about the fourth century. The former, born at Brusa, in Bithynia, 
is by far the most important writer of all the Greeks upon the dis- 
eases of domestic animals. It appears that he belonged to a family 
that was celebrated for its veterinarians ; at least, his grandfather, 
Demitrus, also followed the calling. He was a good observer of the 
outward phenomena of disease, although not a scientific student of 
nature ; he does not seem to have associated much with the medi- 
cal men of his time, and thus may have served to give the profession 
a certain degree of individuality which it had not previously pos- 
sessed. He especially mentions that the gall-bladder is not present 
in the horse. 

Hippocrates's writings were of but little importance, but were 
more or less perfectly collected in the Constantinian " Hippiatrica," 
which we shall find occasion to consider later on. He belonged to 
that great class of veterinarians who willingly acknowledged the 
superiority of Absyrtus, and learned from him. Heusinger ex- 
presses astonishment that, although Hippocrates lived at the time 
of Absyrtus, none of the subsequent Greek and Roman veterinarians 
seem to make any mention of him. 

About this time also flourished the noted medical authors Cel- 
sus and Galen. Celsus wrote an encyclopaedia containing works 
upon medicine, agriculture, and veterinary medicine ; the part treat- 
ing upon the last two subjects has been, unfortunately, lost to pos- 
terity. Of all Roman doctors, however, none has acquired the 
world-wide celebrity and authority which have been given to Clau- 
dius Galenus, 131-200 a. d.* He received a most careful educa- 
tion, studying philosophy and medicine at Pergamos, his native 
city, also at Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria; he was especially 
diligent in the study of anatomy. At twenty-eight years of age he 
was appointed medical attendant to the gladiators at Pergamos, and 
remained there until 164 a. t>. He then removed to Rome ; but 
practice seems to have been a secondary consideration with him, 
and he appears to have been but poorly appreciated by his Roman 
colleagues. We find him, however, to have been on terms of inti- 
macy with the philosophers, and prominent members of the aris- 
tocracy ; he held public lectures upon physiology, which for a time 
enjoyed great popularity, but were subsequently given up on account 

* Wunderlich, " Geschichte d. Medicin," p. 33. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 229 

of the enmity of the medical profession. He soon after left Rome, 
traveling over Italy, and returned to Pergamos in 169 a. d., but was 
again called to Rome by the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius 
Verus, where he remained until his death, giving public lectures, 
and busied with his studies and writings. He was the most exten- 
sive medical author that has ever lived, and appears to have begun 
his authorship even as a boy. It has been estimated that he wrote 
some four hundred books, some of them being quite large. He 
was, indeed, a polyhistorian, and a man of astonishing learning; 
many of the views of medical authors antecedent to his time are 
only known to us through his writings. Pie possessed great analyti- 
cal and critical ability ; he had seen much himself, and investigated 
much, and possessed a highly systematic mind, clearing medicine, 
as it then existed, from much of the superstition and nonsense with 
which it was burdened. His anatomical knowledge was derived in 
part from the writings of Herophilus and Erisistratus, and in part 
from his own dissections, which were made largely upon apes. It 
had not been possible for a long time to make studies of anatomy 
upon the human form divine, and this age, which did not pause to 
sacrifice thousands of human beings at brutal gladiatorial combats, 
still could not offer one for the good of humanity and the advance- 
ment of knowledge. Only once, during the German war of Marcus 
Aurelius, was it allowed the doctors to dissect a human body, but 
they did not get beyond the situation of the intestines. Never- 
theless, the writings of this great doctor remained for a thousand 
years the source from which a knowledge of human anatomy was 
drawn, and it was only by earnest endeavors, supported by actual 
inspection, that his great authority was finally shaken. Galen is 
accredited with saying that " the education of a doctor was incom- 
plete without a knowledge of the processes of disease among the 
lower animals." 

The writings of the celebrated Roman veterinary authors, Cato, 
Varo, Columella, and Yegetius, which are mostly compilations from 
earlier writers, may be found collected in " De Rei Rusticse," a good 
edition of which was given out by Gesner in 1735 : copies of this 
work may be found in some of our medical and public libraries. 
These writings contain descriptions of some diseases, much of which 
is absurd and ridiculous, in the light of the present day. 

" Marcus Portius Cato,* the most ancient of this quartet, was 
born at Tusculum, or Tivoli, 234, and died 149 b. c. He was of a 
plebeian family, and served as a soldier under Fabius Maximus, but 
* Schraeder-Hering, he. cit., p. 75. 



230 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

by his energy of character elevated himself to positions of the high- 
est honor. He became a clever general, jurist, and orator. On ac- 
count of his steadfast morals, and constant enmity to human frailties, 
he acquired the surname of ' the Censor.' He was an enthusiastic 
opponent of Greek doctrines and art, and has the honor of being the 
first Roman who wrote upon agriculture : in these writings we ob- 
serve a crude development of veterinary medicine. His writings 
have been frequently printed and translated into several European 
languages." 

"Lucius Junius Columella* was born at Cadiz, Spain, in the 
reign of the Roman emperor Claudius, about 42 a. d. He had fre- 
quent recourse to the writings of Celsus, and did much for the 
development of veterinary medicine. His writings upon the dis- 
eases of the horse are not inconsiderable, but his descriptions of 
those of cattle are by far the best which we have received from 
antiquity." 

" Publius Renatus Yegetii f (fourth century a. d.) is noted as 
the most erudite among the early veterinary authors. He appears 
to have possessed no inconsiderable degree of knowledge with refer- 
ence to the diseases of the horse and their treatment, as well as a 
scholastic acquaintance with the writings of his Greek and Roman 
predecessors, and some of human medicine, and to have held affec- 
tionately to its antiquated theories and methods of practice. I have 
heretofore said that ' veterinary medicine has been but a parasite 
clinging to human medicine for support.' His writings bear the 
characteristics peculiar to his time, but are distinguished from those 
of many of his contemporaries by being written in more scholastic 
Latin. He used the writings of Absyrtus, but complains of the 
illiterate style in which they were written. As Yegetius often 
speaks of the Huns and their horses, and as these people spread 
over the Yolga in 374 a. d., it is evident that he must have lived in 
the fourth or early in the fifth century, at a time when the Latins 
also understood Greek. He describes the diseases according to the 
parts afflicted, and varies but little from his Greek predecessors. It 
is to his credit that he was the first veterinary author who endeav- 
ored to bring some order out of the chaos which had until then ex- 
isted, and endeavored to formulate some general principles for the 
diagnosis and treatment of animal diseases. His first two books 
treat upon the diseases of the horse, the third upon those of cattle, 
the fourth gives a general description of the bovine and equine 
form, and the composition of many medicines ; among the latter are 
* Schraeder-Hering, he. cit., p. 88. f Ibid., p. 440. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 231 

many which are most ludicrous. While the therapeutic knowledge 
displayed by Vegetius is frequently good, his knowledge of anatomy 
was most insignificant, especially of that which was then known in 
human medicine." 

It is in the writings of these authors that we find the words 
" veterinaria " and " veterinarius " first appearing, indicating the 
Latin origin of our words " veterinary " and " veterinarian." The 
art was also called " mulo-medicine," and Yegetius styles himself 
"Yegetii Renatii sive Mulo-medicinse." It is at or about this 
period that we first find intimations of horseshoeing among the 
Romans, a practice they seem to have borrowed from the Germans 
and Gauls.* 

Yeterinarii are also mentioned as attached to the Roman cavalry, 
and attending to the health of the animals used at the circus at 
Rome. 

During this period numerous pests carried devastation and mis- 
ery among the Romans and their tributary tribes ; the domestic 
animals likewise suffered from similar scourges. JSTo writer of the 
period has given to posterity so classical a description of these devas- 
tations among animals as the poet Yirgil in his " Georgics." I take 
the liberty of transcribing a few appropriate verses of the same from 
Mr. Fleming's "Animal Plagues" : 

" Not whirlwinds from the sea so frequent rush, 
Big with storm, as pests 'mid cattle rage. 
Nor individuals sole disorders seize, 
But, suddenly, whole flocks, With every hope, 
At once, and, from the youngest, all the race. 

"... From tainted air arose 
A dreadful storm, inflamed by autumn's heat, 
And gave to death all cattle, tame and wild, 
Corrupting lakes, poisoning the grassy food. 

" Hence, midst the springing grass, young cattle die, 
And yield their gentle lives at loaded stalls ; 
Hence, madden fawning dogs, and the sick swine, 
With suffocating shake and panting cough, give up their lives. 

"Lo! as the bull under the plowshare smokes, 
He falls, and vomits mingled foam and gore, 
And makes his final groan ; 

* Any one desiring to read a most interesting archaeological study, should not fail to 
obtain Mr. George Fleming's " Horseshoes and Horseshoeing," which is a work more suit- 
able to general education than for instruction in horseshoeing, though the latter part 
does not fail in this particular. 



232 THE HISTORY OP VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

The plowman sad disjoins the ox that mourns his brother's fate, 

And leaves the rooted plow, his work half done. 

Move him not now, nor stream through rocky bed, 

That pure as amber freshens all the plain. 

His flanks are all relaxed, and his dull eye 

A stupor covers, and to earth his neck 

Down rushes with the heavy weight it bore. 

" What profit, then, their service and their toil ? 
No change of food affords relief, 
. And art, implored, destroys." 

I have endeavored, briefly, it is true, to sketch the history of 
veterinary medicine in antiquity, with what success it must be left 
to the reader to judge. The works which we have already alluded 
to remained the fountain th? t supplied nourishment to compiling 
authors for nearly a thousand years: for it is not until the middle 
of the thirteenth century that any work of original importance was 
added to our literature. In the tenth century, the Emperor Con- 
stantine Porphyrogenitus, 911-951 a. d., instigated a compilation 
which included about all the works which had until then appeared. 

Schraeder, in his biographical lexicon, says of him that "he 
was the son and successor of the Greek Emperor Leo. To him we 
are indebted for about all we know of veterinary medicine up to his 
time. He favored and nourished science with all his energy, caused 
public education to be given and schools to be erected, which he 
made subservient to the uses of the state. He gave his whole at- 
tention to the academy at Constantinople, and sought to increase its 
usefulness with all the resources at his disposal. As author and 
polyhistorian, he gathered books from all parts of the earth, praised 
the diligence of compilers, and caused most valuable extracts to be 
made from innumerable writings upon history, agriculture, and 
medicine, a task which had never before been undertaken, and even 
veterinary medicine was not neglected." 

Haeser * says of this part of the work, which was entitled the 
" Hippiatrica," that it consisted mostly of the letters of Absyrtus, 
Emulus, Hierokles, Pelagonius, Theomnestus, Tiberius, Anatolius, 
Archedemus, Hippasius, Tetrippus, and Stratonicus. It first ap- 
peared in a Latin translation, under the title " Veterinaria Medi- 
cinse," libri II, Joh. Euello, interp., Paris, 1530. An edition in the 
original Greek text was published at Basel, 1537, under the title 
" Tciiv innnaTpi'xaiv fitjSXia 8u<o." Translations of the latter appeared 
in Italy, 1543 ; France, 1563 ; Germany, 1571. It is of general in- 

* Loc. cit., p. 546. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 233 

terest that Leontius asserts in the Latin edition (the place is want- 
ing in the Greek) that in the apparent pest-like epizooties, horses 
which were healthy were carefully separated from those which were 
diseased, and their protection was sought by bringing them upon 
good pastures. No such regulation is to be found in any work of 
antiquity against the frequent pest outbreaks of disease among hu- 
man beings. 

We have now, in a very cursory manner, traced the history of 
veterinary medicine, or better, empiricism, to the tenth century, 
which may be said to begin the " Stahlmeisters," or master of the 
horse period. This period continued to the opening of the schools, 
and in all truth may be said to be still with us ; for every one well 
knows the taste among men occupying such positions to write prac- 
tical books " on the care and treatment of the horse." While I 
would not deny more or less practical and empirical ability to men 
occupying these positions, I must emphatically enter an earnest pro- 
test against an American absurdity which leads otherwise intelligent 
citizens to assume thajfc such persons know anything of disease, and 
which results in calling in to attend sick animals the first conven- 
ient stable-keeper, blacksmith, or cow-herd ; that because such men 
have gained a certain sort of practical knowledge with regard to 
the care of our domestic animals in health, it is justifiable to assume 
that they know anything of them in disease. No greater error ex- 
ists than this, and it has unfortunately extended itself into human 
practice, much to the cost of a suffering humanity. Experience is 
indeed valuable, but experience alone has proved a ledge upon 
which many a man has been wrecked. Times come when your 
practical man, your man of boasted experience, can do nothing but 
stand with folded hands and wait. Such times come only too fre- 
quently to the man of still greater experience, and that backed up 
by a most elaborate education and reflective ability. Without edu- 
cation, without that systematic drilling and practice which can only 
be obtained in well-regulated schools and hospitals, experience is 
worse than nothing ; it results in nothing more than the most absurd 
guess-work. What idea can a man have of inflammatory processes 
in the lungs, kidneys, brain, or liver, who scarcely knows the seat of 
those organs, much less anything of their anatomical construction ? 
In all truth, it is the most abject form of cruelty to give over a suf- 
fering dumb animal (alas ! it is too often the case with human beings 
also) to the tortures or futile endeavors of one of these " experi- 
enced " quacks. Fortunate would it be for humanity, fortunate for 
our dumb animals as well, were disease and its treatment the simple 



234 THE HISTOKY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

thing which such actions on the part of those intrusted with their care 
would lead us to assume that it was. On the contrary, the study of 
disease is one of the most difficult tasks which the human intellect 
has to cope with, and, while many men pass through life with the 
reputation of successful practitioners, still it is but the limited few 
who gain entrance to the " holy of holies," and acquire much inti- 
mate acquaintance with disease itself. That an occasional quack is 
rewarded by success is not to be wondered at, when we take into 
consideration the recuperative powers of Dame Nature herself. Noth- 
ing is more amusing, more saddening, than to hear self-important 
practitioners toast of their cures. It is very, very hard, as many dis- 
tinguished men have admitted, and as every man who has devoted 
time to experiment in pathological and therapeutical research, but 
especially the latter, knows, to positively decide whether the im- 
provement which one sees in a given patient is due to the recupera- 
tive powers of Nature, to a weakening of the active properties of 
the cause of the disease, or to the action of drugs which have been 
offered. 

The best and most skillful practitioners are but handmaids, ser- 
vants, to Nature, and he is the best practitioner who most scrupu- 
lously holds to the rule, " hands off," and with religious regard aims 
to support the ever-active recuperative power, efforts, of the physio- 
logical functions. It is seldom given to the attendant upon organ- 
isms afflicted with inner diseases to effect radical cures ; this boon 
is, however, occasionally awarded to the surgeon. Only the quack 
proclaims to have the radical panacea which can cure all and every- 
thing. But to return to our subject : 

The period which we are now considering in the history of vet- 
erinary medicine is marked by the appearance of several works of 
great historical importance. The first of these was the "Hippi- 
atrica" of Jordanus Rufus, " Marescallus Major" to the court of 
Frederick II of Sicily. The king is reported to have assisted on 
the work. Rufus seems to have known but little of the writings of 
his Greek and Roman predecessors, but, according to Haeser, was 
not unacquainted with several works of Arabian origin. His mind 
appears to have been remarkably free from the superstitions of his 
time. He describes quite a number of diseases, among them lami- 
nitis, vulgarly called founder, glanders, tetanus, etc. 

Schraeder * says of him : " He was born in Calabria, in the 
twelfth or thirteenth century, and was from a noble family, and, 
like many gentlemen of his position, busied himself with training 

* Loc. cit., p. 368. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 235 

horses, and the treatment of their diseases. That he must have been 
an important personage, and much esteemed by his patron, is attested 
by the circumstance that his names appear among the signers of 
the king's testament : " Ego Jordanus magnus justitia ruis Rufus 
de Calabria imperialis Marescallus major interfui his et subscribi 
feci." (Frederick reigned from 1212 to 1250 a. d.) Rufus's work, 
" De Medicina Equorum," appears to have been written with the 
advice and consent of the king, but it has been incorrectly asserted 
that the latter himself wrote it. It appears, from Rufus's own 
words, that the king had already died at the time of its publication, 
which accordingly must have taken place subsequent to 1250. It 
was written in Latin, but at an early date was honored with transla- 
tions into Italian, and in 1818 Molin, professor in Padua, gave out a 
Latin edition. None of the ancient Latin works upon this subject 
afford more pleasure to the reader than this of Ruff us's. From it 
one can easily perceive that he was a person of considerable expe- 
rience, far exceeding any of his successors in ability for a period of 
nearly four hundred years. We do not find in his writings any of 
the superstitious fables or astrological nonsense which encumbered the 
works of his predecessors ; he was an earnest student of Nature, and 
gave his conclusions with earnestness and directness. It is certain 
that he knew little of Yegetius, or of the collected writings of Greek 
authors ; at least, he made but little use of them. Many of his di- 
rections are not without value even in our day. Many names which 
he gave to diseases have been adopted into other languages. Hazard 
possessed several manuscripts, and especially a French translation of 
his writings. The contents of one of these manuscripts on vellum, 
from the fourteenth century, is given as follows : 1. The Creation 
and Nativity of the Horse. 2. His Capture and Training. 3. The 
Care and Treatment. 4. The Recognition of the Parts of the Body. 
5. The Diseases. 6. The Medicines and Remedies. 

The invention of printing gave a great impetus to the publica- 
tion of works of all kinds — to a degree, in fact, which we of this 
day and generation can scarcely appreciate. In this regard the pub- 
lication of medical works kept even pace with those of theology and 
other branches of learning. In our own field of study there ap- 
peared a work of rare value ; one, indeed, which marks a turning- 
point in the development of veterinary medicine. Up to this time 
there had been no book on the diseases of animals since the days of 
Aristotle which endeavored to enter at all into the study of their 
anatomy based on special dissections. This ground was first broken 
by an Italian work entitled " Dell' Anatomia et dell' Infirmita del 



236 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

Cavallo," di Carlo Ruini, senator of Bologna, 1598. This work 
contains numerous illustrations, finely executed, when we take into 
consideration the period and the condition of equine anatomy. It 
remained unequaled for nearly two hundred years, when its place 
was in part taken by the really magnificent " Cours d'Hippiatrique " 
of Laf osse, Jlls, Paris, 1772. 

Carlo Ruini * was born and died in the sixteenth century, at 
Bologna, Italy, the exact date being unknown. His grandfather 
was a professor of note at the university of that place, lecturing 
upon jurisprudence. Ruini also studied the same subject, and, as 
stated on the title-page of this book, became senator in his na- 
tive city. But little is known of his life, but in the preface of the 
book in question it is said that from early youth he displayed a 
great fondness for horses. The original edition of this work ap- 
peared in 1598, and the printing and paper are marvels of perfec- 
tion. Uffenbach gave out a German translation, and several from 
French sources soon followed. The book served as a fountain from 
which subsequent compilers drew much information, using also the 
illustrations, which, however, frequently lost much credit in the 
copies made of them. The first part of the book treats of the anat- 
omy of the horse, and the numerous illustrations testify to the dili- 
gence of the author in dissections. The second part treats of the 
diseases of that animal, and is based in no inconsiderable degree 
upon Ruffus and other authors. As little as the authorship is in 
general to be questioned, yet it is very doubtful if the " Anato- 
mia del Cavallo " is from Ruini's hand. " I harbored this doubt," 
says Schraeder, " very early in my study of this book, and the more 
I have reflected upon it the more have I become confirmed in my 
doubts. It is my opinion that some young doctor had at his own 
instigation, or perhaps incited by Ruini, studied the anatomy of the 
horse, and drew the illustrations, and had them engraved upon cop- 
per, which could not be done save at considerable expense, which 
the wealth of Ruini made possible." 

Ercolani, one of the most learned veterinarians of Italy, and 
celebrated for his researches into historical veterinary literature, 
questions the above assertion, and gives full credit to Ruini. 

I have casually mentioned the brilliant contribution to veterinary 
literature, the " Cours d'Hippiatrique" of Laf osse Jlls. "While Rui- 
ni's work was the first illustrated book of any account which had 
until then appeared, that of Lafosse was the first book with colored 
plates which appeared upon equine anatomy. The work is divided 

* Schraeder-Hering, he. cit., p. 369. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 237 

into three parts, and is embellished with a fine copper print of the 
author. The first part treats of the anatomy of the horse ; the sec- 
ond, of its diseases and their treatment ; the third, of horseshoeing. 
It is impossible to doubt the influence of Buini, when one thought- 
fully compares the plates and the arrangements of both these works. 
At this period two men, father and son, occupied most prominent 
positions among the veterinarians of France. I must beg leave to 
nourish the opinion, heretical as it may seem, that it was an unfor- 
tunate thing for France, unfortunate for the development of veteri- 
nary science, not art, that the first veterinary schools established at 
Lyons and Alfort, France, were not established under the direc- 
tion of the younger Lafosse, rather than under that of his great 
rival, Bourgelat. Bourgelat was a horseman, eminently practical • 
hence we see horseshoeing and all practical routine assuming a 
place in French veterinary medicine, at the cost of the scientific in- 
vestigating spirit, which would not have been the case had the more 
scientific and original but not the less practical Lafosse been the 
guiding star. I wish to call particular attention to this opinion, for 
here in America we are in great danger of losing the true union of 
science and practice, before the great practical common sense that 
our people are so fond of assuming to themselves. We have not yet 
learned, at least so far as the study and development of medicine is 
concerned, that experience is a dear task-master. I would not have 
it inferred that I would neglect the practical — I am too much of 
an American for that — but true practice must ever stand upon the 
results of scientific research ; upon an empiricism based upon some- 
thing else than the traditions and errors of our forefathers ; the 
things which have been, but which have never at the same time 
been subjected to the skeptical crucible of the experimental, scien- 
tific researcher. 

As the two Lafosses, especially the son, exerted such an influ- 
ence on the development of veterinary medicine, a short notice of 
their lives can not be out of place here. 

" Etienne Guillaume Lafosse,* the father, was born in Paris, 
and died there January 24, 1765. Little that is authentic is known 
with reference to his life — he appears to have been lost sight of be- 
hind the greater renown of his glorious son. Yet it was to him that 
the son owed his careful education in the scientific and practical ele- 
ments of his profession. The father had, however, given us some 
idea of his ability by his investigations on the seat of glanders, 
published in 1779, in a treatise entitled " Le veritable siege de la 
* Schraeder-Hering, he. cit, p. 234. 



238 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

morve (glanders) et les moyens d'y remedier " ; in 1750 he gave to 
the Academy a brochure upon lycoperdon as a haemostatic, anti- 
bleeding medicine ; and in 1754 published a work on horseshoeing. 
Other writings upon horseshoeing and practice followed, several of 
which, as also the above, were honored with translations into other 
languages." 

" Phil. Etienne Lafosse, the son, was born at Montaterre, near 
Paris, and it is said died at Yilleneuve, upon the Yonne, June, 1820. 
He was the eldest son of the former Lafosse, and at thirteen years 
of age decided to follow the calling which had been so honorably 
followed by his father and grandfather." (It should be mentioned 
here that this family has been one of the most noted among those 
which have given worthy veterinarians to France, and that it is not 
without honorable representatives at the present day.) "At the 
conclusion of his school-days, his father required him to serve for a 
time in his stables, where he acquired proficiency in the handling 
and care of horses ; he then went into the forge for two years, and 
at the same time devoted himself to the study of human anatomy. 
He also received instruction in fencing, drawing, and music. Then 
followed practical experience, gained by accompanying his father 
upon professional visits, at the same time continuing the study of 
equine anatomy. By visiting knacker establishments, and making 
autopsies, he constantly enriched his collection of specimens. At 
eighteen years of age he received an appointment to lecture upon 
equine anatomy to the members of the light cavalry stationed at 
Versailles. He also did the same at the house of his father for the 
students in the forge. In 1758 we find him stationed as army- 
veterinarian, and accompanying the army in two campaigns into 
Germany during the Seven Years' War. On his return he studied 
medicine at Paris. In 1767 he built an amphitheatre, and gave 
therein free lectures and demonstrations upon equine anatomy ; 
these lectures enjoyed great and deserved notoriety, but in 1770 he 
gave them up in order to bring to completion his great work, " Cours 
d'Hippiatrique " ; the same cost Lafosse seventy thousand livres, and 
gave him an immortal reputation, especially in foreign countries. 
He did not, however, enjoy the same good fortune among his own 
people, for, not only in this work, but also in his " Dictionnaire 
d'Hippiatrique," 1775, he displayed a most active opposition to the 
schools at Lyons and Alf ort, or rather, against their founder, Bour- 
gelat. He nourished a great ambition to become a teacher, or even 
director, at one of these schools, but his severe polemics seem to 
have completely shut him off from the desired end. Bourgelat was 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 239 

a far more politic character, and stood in high favor with the min- 
istry, and his scholars gave him such ardent support that the 
severe critique of his opponent passed him harmlessly by. The 
disappointment to his ambition, in unison with sufferings caused 
by a stone in the bladder, made him sell his house in Paris and 
remove to Russia, where he remained from 1777 to 1781. It is not 
definitely known what positions he occupied while there. But jn 
no case could he find himself at home in the despotism ruling in 
Russia, and soon returned to Paris, where he rapidly assumed a 
position at court as veterinarian, and was also appointed to a simi- 
lar position in the carabiniers and gendarmes. From his discon- 
tent with the government, it is not to be wondered at that we find 
him taking an active part in the acts of the Revolution, which 
soon followed : he was present at the storming of the Invalicles and 
Bastile ; became a member of the armed commission, division com- 
mander, and municipal officer of Paris. But we do not find his 
revolutionary ideas confined to politics alone ; his hatred against the 
existing veterinary institutions and Bourgelat again found full vent, 
and he easily saw reasons for the suppression of both, and the re- 
moval of the schools to Paris ; among other things, he accused the 
existing powers of supporting a costly and unnecessary menagerie, 
besides unnecessary instruments, and of accumulating a debt, in 
the years between 1782 and 1785, of thirty thousand livres. La- 
fosse was a hippologist par excellence, and this exclusive devotion 
to the horse was used successfully in the arguments against his 
polemic attacks on the existing institutions. Although the authori- 
ties took so little notice of his polemics, yet Lafosse did not fail 
entirely of public appreciation, for we find him appointed to sev- 
eral important positions as inspector and examiner in connection 
with the army. In all these he displayed his usual activity. On 
the 29th of July, 1794, he narrowly escaped death upon the scaf- 
fold. He then left Paris, occasionally revisiting it, however, and 
retired to the country, where he busied himself in scientific studies, 
occasionally appearing before the public. In 1797 he read a paper 
before the National Institute, entitled " Memoire sur une maladie 
epizootique vaccinique dans le Canton de Bray, qui a regni pendant 
Pete de l'an Y, jusqu'a la fin de vendemiaire an VI." Other papers 
followed this of no less importance. In 1796 he was elected asso- 
ciate member of the Institute, but, notwithstanding earnest endeavor 
on his part and that of his friends, he did not succeed in becoming 
virtually a member. In 1819 he again vented his hatred against 
the schools in a writing entitled " Nouvelle Theorie pratique d'equi- 



2J-0 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

tation." He possessed his great activities until the close of his days, 
and frequently complained of the unthankfulness of his fatherland 
— an ingratitude which, notwithstanding his failures, is still dis- 
creditable to his countrymen, for if Bourgelat deserves a monument 
to his memory for what he did for France, Lafosse no less deserves 
one for his services to the world at large, for none of the literary 
work of Bourgelat equals that which has given a world-wide repu- 
tation to the greater Lafosse. 

Other books, which have acquired at least a certain historical 
importance, but which are of but little practical value, with a few 
exceptions, at the present day, were the "Parfait Marechal" of 
Solleysel, 1664, which was honored with translations into several for- 
eign languages ; the writings of Saunier, mostly based upon books 
which had preceded him; Diaz, in Spain, Yon Zind, Newcastle, 
"Winter von Adler's Flugel ; Marx Fugger, on Breeding ; the " Foure 
Chiefest Offices of Horsemanship, whereto are added, Diverse Medi- 
cines not Heretofore Mentioned," by Thomas Blundeville, of New- 
ton Flotman, in Norfolk, England : London, 1609. (Blundeville is, 
I believe, the originator of the term "Poll-Evil"); the "Hippono- 
mia, or Yineyard of Horsemanship," Baret, 1661 ; "Master Peese, 
Containing all the Knowledge Belonging to the Smith, Farrier, 
Horse-Leech," etc. ; the " Complete Horseman," of William Hope, 
1696; "The Farriers New Guide," by Gibson, 1719; Snape's 
" Anatomy of the Horse," 1T51 ; and a very remarkable book from 
Stubbs, on the " Anatomy of the Horse," 1766. During this long 
period the Continent of Europe and Britain had been frequently 
overrun with animal plagues. Interesting as a condensed history 
of these invasions would be, it is not my purpose to enter upon it 
here, but gladly refer those who care to pursue this subject to 
the very elaborate work of Mr. George Fleming, entitled "Ani- 
mal Plagues," where it is treated in detail. Of these plagues, 
the rinderpest and pleuro-pneumonia of cattle caused the most se- 
rious devastations, and I shall presently have occasion to quote 
largely from the above-mentioned "Animal Plagues," from the 
writings of three men who played an important part in their sup- 
pression, but better still, in instructing the people and governments 
in the means of combating them ; instruction which is as applicable 
to our day as it was when written, over one hundred years ago. 

It is scarcely possible for the people in this country to form any 
conception of the devastation and misery caused by these plagues in 
Europe during the eighteenth century ; and not only these, but 
plagues unknown to us, carried death and misery among the peo- 



TDE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 241 

pie themselves. Wars on wars, with all their accompanying evils, 
had impoverished both the governments and people. Epidemic on 
epidemic had almost broken all the binding ties of kindred and affec- 
tion. Plague on plague had driven people to the last verge of hope 
for sustenance and wealth, by robbing them of their animals, more 
especially cattle. " It has been computed that from 1711 to 1714 no 
fewer than one million five hundred thousand cattle died in Europe 
from cattle-plague." A competent authority tells us that between 
1719 and 1769 " not less than two hundred millions of cattle were 
destroyed by rinderpest alone." * These figures might easily be 
augmented to a degree almost beyond human conception. In our 
own day millions of dollars' worth of valuable animal property is 
yearly swept away by these ravaging destroyers. Ignorance and su- 
perstition prevailed among the people. Where should they look for 
aid ? The doctors were powerless. The veterinary empiricism of 
the day sank as an imbecile before the furious storm. The Church 
cried that the Almighty was angry, and punishing the world for its 
sins. " Come to me — I alone can save you ! " said an equally imbecile 
priesthood. The people went ! Instead of help, they found husks. 
In spite of the invocations of anointed bishops, in spite of the sacred 
and all-preserving charms which the Church affirmed were possessed 
by the consecrated oils, or by the burning cross, or heated key of 
the all-holy saints, Martin and Angelo, in spite of Inquisitional tor- 
tures inflicted upon an already suffering animal world by these bar- 
barians of the Church, in spite of all the powers of man, on went 
the ravaging pests, carrying death and misery in their path. 

Empirical curers, then as now, were to be had on all sides, but 
their medicines were as empty of effect as their brains were of 
knowledge. The so-called veterinary profession was as powerless 
as the mighty Church ; priestly imbecile and veterinary quack joined 
hands in producing nothing. Woe, woe was on every side ! Hope 
alone was all that poor humanity had to depend upon. Men felt 
that they were indeed deserted by God, and that the Father of the 
heavens was no more mindful of his children. But this was only 
so in appearance. 

We have arrived at the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
and found — what ? That no veterinary science existed ; that no 
veterinarians had added anything of much value, other than a few 
things of practical import, to human knowledge. But the medical 
profession had not been idle. While Luther was battling, as a son 
of Mars, for the freedom of the human intellect from the trammels 

* " Animal Plagues." 
16 



242 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

of an imbecile superstition, and in part demoralized priesthood, 
Truth was not without her able representatives in many fields of 
science. Yesalius was following in the path of Luther, and bring- 
ing things which had been, until then, hidden in an impenetrable 
darkness, to the light of the world ; the human body was, for the 
first time, subjected to the analytical power of the human intellect, 
and the anatomist's scalpel was daily revealing truths before which 
the superstitions and myths of thousands of years disappeared as the 
mists before the morning sun. The Church shouted her anathemas, 
but in vain. In spite of curse, hatred, persecution, and calumny, on 
went the bark of trnth, emphatically testifying to the wisdom of 
the words of the Eastern sage, " Truth alone is the mightiest of all 
things, and will live forever." Yesalius was a reformer of the truest 
type ; but to progress, other elements are also necessary. They seek 
to pull down, not to build up ; they serve to tear away the cobwebs, 
which, as superstitions, prevent the new light from gaining entrance 
into dark corners. The sun of revolution in medicine found its 
representative in Paracelsus, a wonderful mixture of superstition 
and common sense himself, but nevertheless a man who did no 
small work in preparing the way for the truth to enter men's minds. 
On went the march of investigation. " More ! more ! " was the cry 
of a hungering humanity ; and the answer came in the great and im- 
mortal Harvey's unlocking the keys to an unknown fountain, and 
teaching men how the flowing blood was forced through their or- 
ganisms. England then denied her child, to honor him in future 
generations as among the " anointed " of the sons of men. The 
great Hunter laid the foundation of a new science, and made the 
world a debtor, by laying the foundation of the first museum for 
pathological anatomy. Boerhaave was teaching a mighty class of 
scholars, whose fame was to make his great name still more famous. 
Yan Zwieten laid the foundation of the first hospital in Yienna. 
Glisson started the doctrine of the irritability of the tissues, which 
found its more complete elucidation at the hands of Haller, im- 
mortal physiologist, poet, philosopher, statesman, and naturalist. 
Harvey and Haller must be looked upon as the fathers of modern 
physiology. It is not an uninteresting fact that Harvey freed the 
world of errors which had been held ever since its beginning, in the 
same year (1620) that our "Pilgrim fathers" broke the ground in 
favor of human rights on the "Western Continent. Haller, Lancisi, 
Ramazzini, Bates, and others, did the work that an incompetent vet- 
erinary profession could not do, by describing the animal plagues, 
especially pleuro-pneumonia and cattle-plague. Not only did these 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 213 

men describe, they also made most careful observations as to the 
manner in which these pests extended, and elucidated means of 
prevention entirely applicable to our day, and which had we, in this 
country, sense enough to study and follow, would save us untold 
millions in the future. So true are the descriptions given by these 
men, so far-seeing the instructions they give for prevention, that I 
feel myself impelled to give them here. 

Speaking of the animal pest which devastated Europe in the 
eighteenth century, Fleming says : " The cattle-plague — rinderpest 
— continued its ravages in all the countries named in the preceding 
year (1712). In Russia, it had enlarged its boundaries. In Ger- 
many, it was reported at various places. It was still spreading in 
Switzerland ; but in Holland its violence was excessive ; it was said 
that there alone, between 1713 and 1723, it destroyed two hundred 
thousand cattle. In Italy it was steadily marching on, and causing 
havoc on all sides. In Naples, Calabria, and Romagna, its advances 
were causing the utmost apprehension and fear. The learned doc- 
tor and physician of Pope Clement XI, Giovanni Lancisi, was sent 
to investigate the nature and prescribe measures for the suppression 
of the pest. To the ability of this man, while obeying his instruc- 
tions, we are much indebted for an accurate description of the symp- 
toms and post-mortem appearances of the malady, as manifested in 
that part of the Roman dominions. His report is as follows : ' In 
the middle of the summer of 1713 there was a rumor at Rome that 
a large number of infected oxen from districts on the Mediterranean 
were being driven from the market of Frusinoso to us ; wherefore 
it was wisely decreed that no markets should be held, or any cattle 
be driven into the place. But merchants introduced oxen into the 
city secretly by by-ways, because their hopes of selling them publicly 
had been frustrated ; and these, being driven about in all directions, 
and becoming mixed with our hitherto healthy stock, spread abroad 
the disease. For, when foreign merchants had doubtful or suspi- 
cious cattle, which they could not sell in their own country, they 
brought them to Rome surreptitiously, and sold them for less than 
the usual price.'' " * 

This philosopher and far-seeing patriot gives us such a high 
opinion of his wisdom and truthfulness in his work on this plague, 
that we must quote more largely from his report. He had no doubt 
whatever as to its being an imported disease. As quickly as pos- 
sible, when its presence was discovered, all traffic in cattle was to be 
prohibited, and the law enforced with the utmost rigor in the case of 
* Fleming, "History of Animal Plagues," p. 198. 



244 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICIXE. 

those who moved cattle about. But the disease was still raging ; " as 
a neglected spark at first, it had at length set Italy in a blaze," and 
was extending everywhere. Lancisi described the disease, dwelt on 
its terrific character and the hopelessness of medical treatment, and 
then recommended what he deemed the wisest course. " I advised 
that every diseased animal should be killed ; for, I maintained that, 
should they be left to a slow death, the cost of medicines, veterinary 
surgeons, attendants, and other means, would be very great, and not 
only this, but their very presence would assist in the diffusion of the 
contagion. The Sacred College, however, ordained that this meas- 
ure was too severe, and that remedies should be tried ; and, in truth, 
they were greatly influenced in this decision by the number of people 
who pretended that they had infallible cures for the affection. But 
the fact is," added Lancisi, " that in the cattle, as in the human 
plague, not every one who takes the disease dies of it. Some re- 
cover, thanks to Nature, rather than to the remedies which are re- 
sorted to." The attempts to cure the disease only resulted in failure, 
and its indefinite extension. Edicts were issued, forbidding the 
bringing of cattle from the Campagna into the district of Rome, 
under the penalty of death to a layman, and of the galleys for life 
to an ecclesiastic. The sale of hides was interdicted, and the flesh, 
horns, and fat of the animals were ordered to be buried in deep pits 
and covered with quicklime. Measures were taken to prevent the 
sale of diseased meats. Inspectors were appointed to visit the mar- 
kets, and only those pieces of flesh which were stamped with a hot 
iron by the inspector were allowed to be sold. Skinning the dead 
carcasses was forbidden, as it might lead to the further extension of 
the disease. The severity of the edicts was complained of ; " but it 
is a fact," he adds, " that here, where the laws were strictly enforced, 
the plague was arrested much sooner than in other parts of Italy." 

The various edicts issued by the Sacred College are given at 
length by Lancisi. He thinks " they will be of great service to pos- 
terity if a similar misfortune should ever again happen — which may 
Heaven avert ! " 

Posterity has heedlessly passed them by many and many times, 
and has consequently paid the penalties of its neglect. 

The last chapter of this invaluable work sums up his admirable 
reflections upon this disease : " The steps which a wise government 
should instantly take, whenever the pestilence may again appear 
upon our borders, are these : all roads and by-paths should be care- 
fully guarded, so that no ox or dog be allowed to enter the country. 
Any animal so entering should be forthwith destroyed and buried. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 245 

Should the pestilence, however, gain admission, the separation of 
the sick from the healthy must be enforced by decree. Indeed, in 
my opinion, by far the safest course is instantly to destroy the ani- 
mal with the pole-axe, so that no infected blood may escape on the 
ground ; for, in attempting to cure the diseased animal, the veteri- 
nary surgeon may convey the disease to healthy animals. The 
healthy cattle must be removed from their former pastures, which 
must be regarded as contaminated. The diseased oxen should be 
kept in stables, to which no one is admitted except the veterinary 
surgeon or the herdsman. The fountains and vessels used by the 
animals should be frequently cleaned with quicklime. The clothes 
of the shepherds should also be fumigated. The dead carcasses, from 
which not one hair is to be removed, must be buried in deep pits ; 
any saliva or secretions which may drop from them on the way to 
the pit are to be carefully removed. If any cows are infected, their 
milk is instantly to be thrown into a hole in the ground ; and the 
severest punishment should be inflicted on those who disobey this 
order. The passage of all rustics and dogs should be forbidden." 

That Lancisi's teachings have not been entirely neglected is 
shown by the following letter, written to Mr. Fleming while I was 
a student in Germany : * 

My dear Sir : I have just read your very judicious and reason- 
able letter in the " Times," on the " Cattle-Plague," and being here 
at Berlin, the headquarters of this outbreak, it may not be uninter- 
esting to you to hear from me as to what I have seen. 

The whole state, we will say, is divided into thirty-six depart- 
ments, and these again are subdivided into districts ; over each 
of these districts is an official veterinarian, known as the " Kreis- 
Thierarzt," or district veterinary surgeon, and the same arrange- 
ment is carried out over the entire Empire of Germany. All these 
men are selected for their ability, and especially for their knowledge 
of contagious animal diseases ; in the smaller towns the " Kreis- 
Thierarzt" is one of the men of the town, and has for society those 
who are considered the leading men of the place. The " Departe- 
ments-Thierarzt " is a much greater character ; he is an unusually 
well-educated person, who must be thoroughly posted in regard to 
the laws of the empire relative to his profession and duties, and is 
responsible to the local state authorities, as well as to the ministry, 
for the faithful performance of his duties ; the " Kreis-Thierarzte " 
are responsible to those of the departments. These officers all re- 
ceive salaries from the state, varying from fifty to four hundred 
* Published iu the " Veterinary Journal," 1879. 



246 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

pounds per year, and also are permitted to receive fees for their 
official attendance in addition to their regular fees. They are fur- 
ther favored in their practice by their official positions, it being a 
guarantee to the public of their competency. Prussia does much to 
encourage graduated students to continue their studies. This win- 
ter some thirty men, from twenty-five to forty years of age, are re- 
ceiving about forty pounds each from the Government to pay their 
expenses in Berlin, while they are attending lectures and studying ; 
and at the time I write they are being examined for higher positions. 
Every year a new set arrives ; so you will understand that our sci- 
ence is properly encouraged on the Continent, and a man has some 
incentive to work. In Prussia, to every 4*75 square miles (geo- 
graphical) there is a veterinary surgeon, and to his care are confided 
1,544 horses, 4,592 cattle, 14,221 sheep, 2,192 hogs ; and there are 
(these figures apply to 1875) 1,290 veterinary practitioners. This 
has no reference to the number of official veterinarians. 

These few remarks will serve as an introduction to the remainder 
of my letter. Early in January there was an unusual excitement to 
be noticed around our school ; messengers were to be seen rapidly 
passing between the offices of the Minister of Agriculture and the 
school officials. It soon transpired that " der Teufel's los," as it was 
expressed to me, or, in other words, the " rinderpest " was in Ham- 
burg. It took but a short time to arrange matters. Professor Miil- 
ler, whom you know as an anatomist, and a great authority upon 
this scourge, was dispatched to Hamburg with a high government 
officer. Another great expert was sent to the Russian frontier; 
every department veterinary officer was notified by telegraph, and 
in less than twelve hours an embargo was placed upon every head 
of horned cattle in Germany. If I mistake not, your Government 
was officially informed of the sailing of the Castor with infected 
cattle from Hamburg, in sufficient time to have stopped her before 
reaching London. She should have been stopped some distance 
from that port, her hatches battened down, and the vessel and cargo 
towed somewhere, sunk, and paid for by the Government. If this 
was in reality the first infected cargo, then England would perhaps 
have been preserved from a serious loss ; the future can alone prove 
what the loss may be. 

To return to the outbreak in Germany. The Berlin and all 
other markets were most vigilantly watched, and no cattle or other 
animals were allowed to be removed from them alive for slaughter 
in the city. (All cattle moved at any time from the markets in 
Berlin are moved only in large cattle-wagons ; the same is true of 



THE niSTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 247 

every other marketable animal, except horses. Glandered horses 
and suspected horses are invariably moved in wagons, either to the 
school for inspection, or to the knackers, to be immediately killed.) 
All cattle that had to be removed were first rigidly inspected, and 
then conveyed in wagons, and put directly upon the cars ; and so it 
was all over the country. Alluding to your remarks in the " Times," 
on the futility of inspection when the disease is latent, a fine in- 
stance occurred here, which our mutual friend Professor Dieck- 
erhofI unraveled with his customary ability. He was called to 
Westphalia, it being reported that a cow there was suspiciously dis- 
eased. On his arrival the cow in question had been killed, or had 
died, but her illness was said not to have been rinderpest. It was, 
however, reported that another cow was sick, and this animal was 
immediately placed under lock and seal, and the case proved to be 
one of rinderpest. As the story is interesting, it may be useful to 
relate it in full : This cow had been bought in Berlin by a butcher, 
who was a Jew ; it was there inspected and passed, put on the cars 
with others, and taken to the town, the name of which I have forgot- 
ten. The other cattle were at once killed ; but the butcher having a 
child suddenly die, the remaining cow was sent to a friend for a day 
or two, for him to keep, and during the interval the disease had time 
to develop. Professor DieckerhofI traced the whole affair from 
beginning to end ; the cow was killed, and rinderpest proved to be 
present. If this cow had been killed with the others, the disease 
might have been spread without the real cause ever becoming ap- 
parent, or brought to light. I have purposely refrained from saying 
anything about the action of the authorities in these special cases ; 
in the investigation of some others it was my good fortune to be 
present. Early one morning about two weeks since, Professor 
DieckerhofI sent for me ; it was just daylight, and, with him and 
four other students, we started for a village, about thirteen miles 
from Berlin, where a cow was reported to be sick. I should state 
that the Government keeps a very nice " turn-out " and four horses 
for this purpose, and Professor DieckerhofI has this clinic (at pres- 
ent he has charge of the school hospitals) — taking four students each 
time with him, your humble servant going when anything interest- 
ing is likely to turn up. We arrived in about two hours, the roads 
being heavy ; we met the local officers and proceeded to the sus- 
pected farm-house, but did not enter until we had proved our right 
to do so ; the house being guarded, and not a person allowed to 
leave or enter the premises, but to speak or pass things in or out 
through a window. I omitted to state that Professor Dieckerhoff 



248 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

and the renowned Hertwig had been there the previous day, and it 
had been decided to allow another to pass, in order that the symp- 
toms should become sufficiently developed to prove the existence 
of the disease, the place being well guarded. During the night a 
trench had been dug some forty feet long and some fourteen deep 
in an entirely isolated wood, which we could reach without crossing 
a public way. We removed the cow, made a necroscopical exami- 
nation, proved our case ; her nine companions were brought after her 
to the same place, with their chains and stable-utensils : the cows 
were then shot, after the decision of the proper officers had been 
given, and they with the utensils were at once buried — a military 
guard over the place, another about the farm from which they were 
taken, and also on the streets leading to the village ; the inmates of 
this particular place being confined strictly to their own limits for a 
time prescribed by law. 'No cattle or farm animals were allowed in 
the streets, and only persons permitted there with teams who had 
received sanction from the authorities. All those who had had to 
do with the infected cattle were most effectually disinfected ; while 
those that buried them had no cattle themselves, and were not al- 
lowed to go near any within the lawful time. I heard an officer say 
that the pastor of the village must be carefully watched : that these 
gentry were unfortunately apt to be spreaders of contagium, the 
guards often allowing them to pass as favored persons, and then they 
innocently, of course, must go to the stable, see things, and after- 
ward go to another neighbor to mention the loss of neighbor So- 
and-so. This has often been the case, I am told, in Germany. The 
manure, the stall, and all things about the stable, are carefully cleansed 
and disinfected under the supervision of veterinary officials. I was 
surprised to see numerous military about the fields and streets, ap- 
parently with no purpose, yet carrying rifles ; their duty, it seems, 
was to shoot every dog, cat, or valiant chanticleer, which they might 
see straying abroad or leaving the proper quarters. Doubtless the 
Prussian course may seem tyrannical and severe — all the cattle are 
killed, not only the diseased, but all belonging to the infested farm 
or stable — but the law is, to my mind, essentially democratic ; it is 
for the good of the whole, and the cattle killed and utensils de- 
stroyed are paid for by the state at market prices. 

The remarks of Haller upon certain contagious animal diseases, 
more especially the pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, which is of such 
vital interest to the people of this country at present, and which 
bids fair to become a most serious economical problem to American 
statesmen, certainly more than warrants their introduction here. It 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 249 

is not, however, inappropriate to the subject of this book to give a 
short sketch of the life of a man who has wielded such a mighty 
intellectual influence in the world's progress. 

"Albert von Haller * was born at Bern, Switzerland, in 1708, and 
in early youth demonstrated a systematic spirit and a strong scien- 
tific tendency. He began to make for himself a private dictionary 
as soon as he was able to write, in which he entered all words hith- 
erto unknown to him, with their meanings. He also made a dic- 
tionary of a similar character as soon as he began the study of for- 
eign languages, and when he began the study of history he followed 
the same course. He often said that in his later years he found 
valuable information in these works of his youthful days. When 
ten years old he had already shown his taste for poetry by writing 
ludicrous verses about his teachers, his poetic talent at this time 
having a special bent to satire, which he, however, entirely gave up 
in later years. In 1723, when he was fifteen years old, he went to 
the University of Tubingen, to study medicine under Duvernoi and 
Camerarius. In the next year he wrote a polemic against an ana- 
tomical assertion of Professor Coshwitz at Halle. He did not re- 
main long at Tubingen, as he, with other students, had made a 
shepherd so drunk with high- wine (Branntwein) that the latter lost 
his life. In 1725 he removed to Leyden, to study under the guid- 
ance of the immortal Boerhaave. At eighteen years of age he ac- 
quired his degree of doctor of medicine, visited England and France, 
but had to flee from Paris, because it was found that he had made 
dissections of human bodies at his residence. From Paris he went 
to Basel and studied mathematics under Bernoulli ; but in 1729 he 
returned to the place of his nativity, Bern, in order to practice his 
profession ; at the same time he studied botany with great earnest- 
ness. In 1734 he became director of the hospitals of his city, and 
also had an amphitheatre built in which he gave anatomical lectures. 
Most of his poems were written at this time. In 1735 he had con- 
trol of the City Library, which he himself used with the greatest 
diligence. In 1736 he was called to Gottingen as Professor of Anat- 
omy, Chemistry, and Botany ; he also explained the ' Institutions ' of 
his master, Boerhaave, which he himself published with commentaries 
in 1739. At this period he still busied himself with botany, and pub- 
lished several works of classical importance upon the subject ; he 
also wrote a large number of important anatomical papers, besides 
publishing an atlas of anatomy. But it is for his contributions to 
physiology that Haller is as much noted as for any other of his mani- 
* " Geschichte d. Medicin," Wunderlich, Stuttgart, 1859. 



250 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

fold accomplishments. His first appearance in this branch of sci- 
ence was a polemical work on respiration in 1727. He demonstrated 
that there was no air between the pleura costalis and lungs, against 
the contrary assertions of Professor Hamberger. Haller's fame, 
and with it that of the Gottingen University, increased each year ; 
he laid the foundation of the Gottingen Scientific Society, and a 
periodical, which is still in existence, devoted to science. After sev- 
enteen years of unceasing activity his health broke down, and he 
was obliged to return to Bern in 1753, where he took an active in- 
terest and part in the government, and published numerous works 
upon botany, anatomy, surgery, the practice of medicine — all of 
them of classical importance. During the last years of his life he 
scarcely left his library — sleeping, eating, working, and receiving 
his friends and visitors there. His wife, children, pupils, and 
friends were all kept busy aiding this wonderfully gifted man in his 
work ; only in this way was it possible for a human being to give 
to the world the almost incredible amount of literary work which 
he did. Haller died, beloved and respected of all, at the place of 
his birth, on the 12th of December, 1777." In 1877 his native 
city fitly celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the death 
of this her greatest son, whose name and fame will be held immortal 
so long as memory lasts and mankind continues to reverence the 
noblest among the children of the world, who, though dead in form, 
still live that immortality which is given but to the selected few. 

I have previously mentioned that among the most important con- 
tributions to veterinary literature in the eighteenth century was a 
writing by Haller upon an epizootic disease of the cattle of Switzer- 
land, an edition of which appeared at Bern in 1773, entitled " Me- 
moire sur la Contagion parmi le Betail." 

" In this year (1745) * the immortal Haller published his inves- 
tigations into the nature of an epizootic which had several times 
been observed in Switzerland. The great physician supposed it 
was the ' cattle-plague,' but no one can read his description of this 
Swiss malady without surmising that it was a different disease, in 
all probability the bovine contagious pleuro-pneumonia. Such an 
authority needs no apology for being quoted here, especially as his 
preventive measures are worthy of notice, and would probably have 
saved this country a great loss had they been adopted in recent 
years : 

" 1. The first thing necessary is to determine the nature of the 
disease. This knowledge is not easily acquired, for frequently it 

* Fleming, loc. cit., p. 446. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 251 

does not manifest itself by any perceptible symptoms for a long 
time. The veritable cause of death is the work of nothing but cor- 
ruption, which often infects the intestines — corruption, which is the 
consequence, not the cause, of the disease. The ravages which this 
disease caused among the cattle of the most enlightened nations, 
before they knew its terrible character or the means to prevent its 
progress, are without doubt to be attributed to the great difficulty 
which is frequently met with in correctly recognizing it. In a gen- 
eral way, it is described as manifesting itself by a violent fever, shiv- 
erings, staring coat, by loss of rumination ; but all these symptoms 
do not appear until the malady has already made deadly advances in 
the interior of the animal. "We are told that, for a certainty, a beast 
taken out of an infected stable and transported to a perfectly healthy 
atmosphere does not become sick until a month after it has been re- 
moved from the diseased locality, and that it perishes from the veri- 
table contagion which, without doubt, had been concealed during 
the whole of this month in the body of the animal. It is also a fact 
that the diseased cattle jump about for some weeks with vivacity ; 
that they give their usual quantity of milk ; that they eat their for- 
age with avidity ; that they work in harness, and yet that they carry 
death in their intestines. The only indication of pneumonia (jml- 
monie) which is to be noticed from the commencement is a slight 
cough, which affects the animal, notwithstanding every apparent in- 
dication of good health. It is not for some days or weeks after the 
animal has become infected that the disease shows itself by fever 
and horripilation. The cough now augments, the animal moans, its 
strength diminishes, it can not stand, and lies down very often ; it 
has a difficulty in breathing ; the pulse is frequent ; the fever be- 
comes intensified. It is now that the appetite and rumination cease. 
The disease prevails for some days, the fever increasing daily ; the 
veins (?) beat with a force and quickness which is astonishing ; a vis- 
cid froth escapes from the mouth and nostrils ; the tongue is hot, 
the breath heavy and labored, and its odor insupportable ; the eyes 
are withdrawn in their orbits, the horns cold ; a diarrhoea of a bad 
odor, sometimes tinged with blood, and a thorough total sinking 
terminate the beast's days. Diarrhoea does not always take place." 
" 2. When we open the cattle after death we find the lungs con- 
stantly and infallibly affected. "We might know this from the cough 
and the difficulty of breathing which precede death. In all the 
contagions which have reigned at Sulens, Grandson, Crassy, and 
elsewhere, the lungs have always been inflamed and attached to the 
pleura, and abscesses often form between the lungs and this mem- 



252 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

brane. I find the same observations in the best authorities who 
have written upon the contagion, and particularly in the writings of 
M. Bourgelat, who has made the treatment of these animals a par- 
ticular study. In many cows the lungs are found gangrenous ; in 
others, they are filled with abscesses ; and in others, again, there are 
vesicles filled with water, mixed sometimes with pus ; it is more 
rare to find tartarized or cretaceous matters. There are constantly 
inflammation and gangrene of the pleura, and we have never yet 
killed infected animals and found the lungs in a perfect state. The 
cough being the first symptom of this disease, it is present in every 
animal affected. The lungs being constantly diseased, it is evident 
that the disease of these organs is the essence of the contagion, and 
that it is with perfect justice that the people of France and Ger- 
many term it pneumonia. The alterations in the other viscera are 
not so essential as those in the lungs. It is common, nevertheless, 
to find the stomach inflamed and gorged with food. It is scarcely 
altered when the animals are killed shortly after the commencement 
of the disease ; but, when they have been slaughtered at the last 
stages, or when they have died, the first compartment is inflamed, 
the food is found but little affected by digestion, or it may be rot- 
ten. The second compartment is equally inflamed, and filled with 
forage which is undigested. The third compartment suffers the 
most, and is often found inflamed and gangrenous, the food in it 
being extremely compact and dry, and sometimes rotten (pourri). 
The fourth or true stomach is frequently inflamed and gangrenous, 
but the food is not hardened. 

" From the first days of the malady the beast has eaten and ru- 
minated ; and, as it would not be able to maintain either of these 
functions if the stomach had become inflamed, it is very evident 
that the disturbance of the stomach is a consequence of the fever, 
and the putridity of the juices of the beast, and that it is not the 
cause of the disease. The animal has been infected and the stomach 
maintained its health for a number of days, and it is only by a cor- 
ruption of the humors that it is found vitiated. 

" 3. The true nature of a disease is known by the accidents which 
accompany it in its duration, and by the changes which we observe 
on the autopsy of the animal, when compared with the organs in 
health. But the essential features of the disease ought to consist in 
the symptoms which are manifested from the beginning, and which 
have continued during life, and in the marks of corruption in the 
interior, which are the actual causes of these symptoms. It requires 
care not to be deceived by these accidents, which are a consequence 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 253 

of the corruption of the humors, and are only most apparent in the 
latter stages of the disease. It is believed that the contagion among 
cattle is an inflammatory fever, a malignant fever — a fever accom- 
panied by an eruption of the skin — as well as an inflammation of the 
stomach. It is evident that it is a disease of the lungs, which com- 
mences by an inflammation, running often into gangrene ; at other 
times into abscesses, and which terminates in phthisis. It is very 
astonishing that among the number of modern doctors who have 
written on a contagion existing for so many years, scarcely one has 
observed that the seat of the disease exists in the lungs, or even that 
these were attacked. 

" 4. The doctors have established their remedial measures to cure 
this disease on the notion that they knew its nature. Those who 
look upon it as an inflammatory fever recommend bleeding, and 
remedies of a soothing and cooling kind ; those who admit a corrup- 
tion of the blood have ordered febrifuge and stimulating remedies ; 
and those who consider it a putrid fever counsel the administration 
of acids ; and, in Brandenburg, wild apples have been recommended 
as a specific. Others, again, have proposed quinine, and others mer- 
cury, while the people have had recourse in general to incongruous 
compositions, and to old-fashioned recipes. The ancients looked 
much to setons passed through the skin, in order to establish a long- 
continued suppuration. But it has been discovered, by sad expe- 
rience, in Holland and England, that these remedies are impotent ; 
all hope of curing this disease has been lost, and people are content 
to mitigate it by inoculation. We pass in silence the pretended pre- 
servatives by which it is supposed animals are insured against the 
contagion, and to which no man of sense would give any confidence, 
seeing that they are useless against the plague, the smallpox, and 
other contagious diseases. 

" 5. A long experience has taught us that remedies are useless 
against the contagion. The beginning of the disease is nearly im- 
perceptible, and when the symptoms are manifested the cure has 
become almost impossible. The use of remedies is otherwise dan- 
gerous, for the infection is really communicated by the breath and 
exhalations. We have a proof of this in the foul smell attached to 
the clothes of people who look after the diseased beasts. We can 
not hope to cure in a day a disease of so serious a character ; 
and thus the diseased creature, which lives in the same stable with 
other cattle, and feeds and drinks with them, may infect them 
during the time we are unsuccessfully attempting to cure it. These 
same exhalations may also lodge in the clothes of those who go 



254 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

about them, and thus become dangerous to the animals yet in 
health. 

" We can not, then, hope for any good from remedies. For more 
than two thousand years an infinite number of the most learned 
men have given their constant attention to observing the effects of 
medicines on mankind. We know well enough the value of sim- 
ples, the properties which they have of stimulating or evacuating, 
and their dose. But we have not nearly the same knowledge to 
guide us when we deal with animals : few talented persons have 
observed their diseases ; the art of curing them has been left to men 
of low condition, who have no knowledge of the anatomy of the 
lower creatures, and who have not informed themselves by the study 
of nature or of good authors. The cattle-doctors invariably fol- 
low the same routine traced out by the ancient veterinarians, and 
their science (art) consists of divers receipts which they have found 
among the papers of their predecessors. 

" The structure of the stomachs of cattle is very different from 
that of man; in general, the envelopes of their nerves are much 
thicker, the sensations less active, the pulse less frequent, the arteries 
more hard, the heart less irritable. All these peculiarities change 
the effect of remedies in animals, in a way quite different to man ; 
and it is only within a few years that convincing proof has been 
afforded of the differences between the effect which a given remedy 
has on man and the animals. The saffron of metals is a violent 
emetic for man ; in the horse it only increases the transpiration ; a 
dose of glass of antimony, which produces violent vomiting in man- 
kind, simply purges the horse ; no poison will make a horse or cow 
vomit. Because the effects of medicines, therefore, on the lower 
animals are so little known ; because scarcely any one has observed 
closely enough the diseases of cattle, or given definite rules for the 
exhibition of the proper remedies ; because the use of remedies can 
only tend to spread the contagion — for all these reasons it is pru- 
dent to abstain from a dangerous tentative which promises but lit- 
tle, and which may have the worst effects ; it is infinitely preferable 
to oppose the disease by means which are more certain and com- 
mendable. 

" 6. We "begin by disabusing the public of the idea that the pneu- 
monia (la jpuhnonie) is not a contagious disease. This outrageous 
idea even comes from some savants. There are those, too, who rob 
the plague of its contagious power. I do not pretend to say that the 
skin of an infected beast preserves its contagious properties for a 
long time after death ; experiments upon this matter, which deserve 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 255 

attention, have been made in France. It is necessary, nevertheless, 
to remember that the plague attaches itself by preference to the 
wool and the hair of animals, that it may be transported by these 
materials, and that they will spread the contagion to other towns 
and countries free from the contagion. It is, then, possible that 
the poisonous exhalations of the diseased beast attach themselves to 
the hairs of animals which go near it. It is at least certain, in our 
country, that as often as the disease is manifested among cattle, and 
when it has been traced to its source, it has been found that a beast 
which has been purchased in the market of some suspected place, or 
which had been brought from some suspected locality, has carried 
the contagion with it to a new center. Sometimes, also, the cattle 
of our regions have been pastured with those of a neighboring in- 
fected country. It is very probable that at other times the air of 
the infected mountains has spread the dangerous exhalations over 
the country. We believe that we have observed that healthy cattle 
which had smelled of those that were diseased have shown, a few 
hours after, traces of the contagion. It is known that the ship from 
Sidon brought the plague to Marseilles, and that the bull which was 
taken from Hungary to Padua, in 1711, took with it the fearful con- 
tagion which first ravaged Italy, and then nearly the half of Europe. 
It thus appears that the plague of man and the cattle-plague take 
their origin in hot countries, that they can infect temperate regions, 
and that they are gradually destroyed during the cold of some rig- 
orous winter. That which is yet a better proof that the pneumonia 
is perpetuated by infection, as the plague is, is the manner in which 
we can confine it in suspected places, and by cutting off all commu- 
nication between the stables which are infected and those which are 
not. If this malady were generated spontaneously, like the ordinary 
fevers of man, we would in vain barricade stables, in vain would we 
slaughter the cattle of a village, and it would be useless to isolate 
the mountains by barriers and guards. All these precautions would 
not keep away a disease which has its origin in the blood itself of 
the healthiest cattle. . . . The contagion, however, does not spread 
very far, and it does not infect a column of air for any great distance. 
If the air were infected, if it was able to carry afar the poison of 
the disease, the barriers and other precautionary measures of man 
would be unavailing. In this there is the greatest resemblance be- 
tween the disease of cattle and the plague of man. The monks and 
nuns of Marseilles were saved because they kept their convents 
closed. The air was not, then, the cause of the disease, else the clos- 
ing of the convents would not have prevented the pestilence from 



256 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

entering. The police have often confined this disease of cattle to a 
stable, or a small number of stables, and so prevented others being 
attacked. 

" It follows from all this that, on the one side, the disease arises 
from infection, and, on the other, that there are no hopes of a cure. 
There only remain, then, those resources which we may employ to 
prevent infection, and for confining to the smallest possible limit 
the loss which might happen when animals are first attached by this 
poison. These efforts should be directed to prevent the infection 
being communicated from foreign countries to ours ; or, if it should 
have penetrated, then to stop its extension from diseased to healthy 
cattle. Above all, then, we should hinder the entrance of cattle 
from a country where the pneumonia nearly always reigns, some- 
times in one district, sometimes in another, and these precautions 
ought to remain in force at all times, and be perpetual in regard to 
those countries where the police is not strict, and from which the 
disease might be carried to ours. The danger will always he great 
if the trade in cattle is carried on without inspection. This precau- 
tion is all the more necessary against the countries whose rulers 
care little for the welfare of the people, and in which the people 
have no confidence in the administration. The poor people of a 
country, despairing of being aided by the Government, conceal with 
extreme care the existence of the contagion ; to evade more onerous 
consequences, they even inter their cattle in the stables ; and it 
is very natural that they should endeavor to sell at modest prices 
beasts the keeping of which would only cause the extension of the 
disease among other cattle. In the countries where the ruler has 
a paternal feeling for his subjects, where he is always disposed to 
soften their losses, where he generously takes into account the ex- 
penses necessarily attending precautions, and where he gains the 
confidence of the people, the inhabitants at once denounce the 
disease, submit to the necessary restrictions, and rely on the wis- 
dom of their king for their preservation and the amelioration of 
their hardships. A wise government ought to prevent the contagion, 
and not wait until it has invaded the country, out check it at 
its frontiers, where it is easy to do so. The police ought, then, 
even in times of the greatest security, to take care that no animal 
shall become diseased without responsible people being informed. 
Even in ordinary times every animal purchased or sold ought to be 
vouched for, and should be marked on the horn with a particular 
stamp for each village, which mark should be renewed whenever it 
becomes effaced / so that by this proof we may know what village 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 257 

it comes from, and assure ourselves of the health of that village. 
For the same reason no cattle should be admitted to fairs or markets, 
sold or exchanged, without a voucher being given of perfect health, 
impressed and signed by the authorities, testifying to the health of 
the animal and that of the place whence it came. For this purpose 
inspectors are necessary. They should destroy cattle which are 
brought without attestation and give the flesh to the poor / there 
are but few cases where less rigorous measures are needed. 

" 8. Notwithstanding all these precautions, the extent of the 
frontiers, the want of care on the part of neighboring nations, the 
exhalations from the infected mountains where the disease is rag- 
ing, the greed of gain, and the desire to purchase at a low price, as 
well as the other failings of a police so difficult to enforce in human 
society, are all causes which may aid the contagion in insinuating 
itself into some village or on some mountain. In this unfortunate 
case it only rests with us to smother the flame in its first commence- 
ment, and to prevent its extension. Every person who may have 
any knowledge of the disease, or even any suspicion of its existence 
among cattle, should be held liable to a penalty if the nearest magis- 
trate is not at once informed y also, when a non-suspected beast be- 
comes diseased or dies, the proprietor or other instructed person 
should give information^ and the proper authorities should then pass 
on the tidings. Whoever conceals any suspected case should be se- 
verely punished. Every precaution should then be taken to extin- 
guish the disease. 

" 9. The first of these precautions is the prompt separation of 
the diseased beast from healthy ones. So long as it is suspected, it 
ought neither to be allowed to drink, feed, pasture, nor dwell with 
the healthy. It should be kept in a separate stable, or in an in- 
closed paddock, and those who attend it should wear clothes appro- 
priate to the purpose, never even approaching healthy animals. 
The trough out of which this animal drinks ought not to be used for 
healthy ones, the dung should not be spread on the ground or carried 
away, but should be buried in deep pits and well covered with 
earth, and these places should be surrounded with palings, so that 
no healthy beast may be able to smell it. 

" "When the infected animal has been killed, or when it has died, 
it is necessary to aerate the stable for three months at least, and to 
remove and burn the thatch, and all the wooden movable articles ; 
to dig up the ground to the depth of a foot, and replace it with 
other earth, and cover the whole with lime. The healthy should 
not go near the forage which the diseased may have been eating, 
11 



258 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

and which might be infected by its breath, though it may be given 
to horses. Every animal dying of the disease should be opened in 
the presence of proper persons skilled in the veterinary art, and a 
report of the post-mortem appearance should be made. If the dis- 
ease is made out to be a non-contagious one, the owner may be per- 
mitted to use the flesh and remove the skin. But if there is found 
the slightest cause for suspicion in the lungs, the skin ought to be 
cut crosswise, and buried in a grave six feet deep, which should be 
filled with lime. Palisades should be fixed around it, so that no 
animal may come near it. If the disease is really a pneumonia, it is 
preferable not to doctor it, but to kill without delay the first ani- 
mals which, from their cough, would lead one to suspect the dis- 
ease, or those which have been in the same stable with the sick ; 
because we may set down as lost, without exception, every animal 
which has been in a house with a pulmonic beast. Experience has 
only too often demonstrated that they take the disease one after the 
other, and all die. 

" 10. When many stables are infected in the same village, the 
danger is yet greater, and it is here that it is necessary to redouble 
our efforts to prevent the extension of the contagion. All the in- 
fected stables should be carefully closed and excluded from all 
communication with the watering-places and pasturage; in seri- 
ous cases, to make more certain, we should kill all animals which 
have been in the infected places, no less those in apparent health 
than those in which the disease is manifest. We are driven to 
this severe course because we can never be assured that those ani- 
mals which have come out of the suspicious places have escaped the 
contagion. This apparent cruelty is the only means to be employed 
for preventing the contagion from penetrating into other stables and 
into neighboring villages, and from spreading over the whole country. 

" The case is yet more dangerous when the contagion manifests 
itself on a mountain where a certain number of cattle find their 
subsistence during the winter. It has happened that the cattle of 
the plains have remained in health, but those on the neighboring 
mountains have been infected, and thus the herds of the republic 
have been encircled by contagion. In these unhappy circumstances 
it should be recommended that the mountain-passes be closed, and 
all communication cut off from the infected pasturage. Inspectors 
ought to make a visit every fifteen days to the mountains, where 
cattle belonging to the subjects of the state are kept, in order to 
examine with great care if any beasts are in a suspicious condition, 
or if, without exception, they are healthy. 



THE niSTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 259 

" In those instances where the infected mountains of our neigh- 
bors abut too closely on our own, these last should be most strictly- 
guarded, and it should not be for less than a year after the disease 
has disappeared that any communication should be allowed ; as ex- 
perience has amply demonstrated that cattle not suspected of the 
disease have been attacked by the contagion by grazing on mount- 
ains in the neighborhood of those infected. Sometimes we are 
obliged to exercise a greater degree of severity by destroying the 
hogs which, according to custom on the mountains, feed with the 
cattle. The contagion which destroys the cattle does not affect 
either pigs, sheep, or horses; but it is always to be apprehended 
that these may carry some of the contagion or their infected breath 
to these animals, and may thus spread the disease. 

" It is only by these precautions, which should be constantly in 
force, that it is possible to confine the contagion to a village or 
mountain, and to keep the country free from infection." 

That these explicit instructions of the great Haller have not been 
without their proper appreciation, may be seen from the following : 

Professor Putz * (of the Veterinary Institute at Bern) says : 
"It is not difficult to determine what regulations are indicated, 
from a truly scientific stand-point, to suppress the contagious lung- 
plague of cattle. In order to effectually eradicate the generation of 
infectious material, the sole generator of the pest, there is no more 
radical method than the complete killing out of the infected herd. 
A view of the questionable conditions in Switzerland satisfactorily 
demonstrates how advantageous it would be were all the nations 
of Europe to adopt this plan. In the canton of Bern, noted for 
its richness in cattle, for about one hundred years (since Haller) this 
scientific procedure has been successfully carried out, and it has 
finally become universally adopted by the numerous cantons of the 
Swiss Republic. The law (of February 8, 1872) for the suppres- 
sion of contagious animal diseases, especially the contagious pleuro- 
pneumonia of cattle, says, article 21, ' In Switzerland no cattle that 
have been diseased with the contagious lung-plague (Ansteckenden 
Lungenseuche) can ever again be allowed to become an article of 
traffic.' " In Massachusetts the same course was adopted, at a cost 
of some seventy -five thousand dollars to the people of the State, but 
the result has been, that while the disease has prevailed, and still 
prevails, in neighboring States, not a single case has again appeared 
in Massachusetts. 

* " Die Lungenseuche," etc., by Professor Putz, " Vortrage f iir Thierarzte," Series i, 
Heft 6, v. 1\ 



260 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

As is well known, England has been repeatedly invaded by 
the rinderpest, which has caused the people to lose millions of 
pounds in valuable cattle ; while legislation has been wof ully im- 
perfect in this regard, owing to the unfortunate influence exerted 
by the London Yeterinary School in times past ; still Britain has 
not been without patriotic and excellent advisers. Among the 
most noteworthy was a Mr. Bates, surgeon to George I, who wrote 
in 1714, but his advice seems to have fallen upon barren ground 
in later years. Bates was appointed by the Government to study 
the disease, and to devise means' for its prevention. He writes, 
after examining a large number of diseased animals: "We then 
ordered some of the sick cows to be housed, and several sorts of 
cattle to be kept with them, to see whether the contagion would 
affect any other species. The next day I made a verbal report to 
their Excellencies of all the several opinions and discourses which 
I have had about it, and left them debating what method to take ; 
at last I was called in, and ordered to consider it again the next 
day, and to deliver them in writing what would be proper to be 
done. Accordingly, I drew up and gave them the following pro- 
posals : 

" 1. That all such cows as are now in possession of Messrs. Rat- 
cliffe, Rufford, and Pullen, be brought, killed, and burned ; or, at 
least, that the sick be burned, and the well kept secured on the 
grounds where they now are, that such of them that sicken and die 
of the distemper may be burned. 

" 2. That the houses in which the sick cows have stood be washed 
very clean, and then smoked by the burning of pitch and wormwood, 
and be kept empty three months, at least, before other cows be put 
therein. 

" 3. That the fields where the sick cows have grazed be kept 
two months before any other cows are suffered to stand or graze 
upon them. 

" 4. That persons looking after such that are ill should have no 
communication with those that are well. 

" 5. That the same methods be observed if any other of the cow- 
keepers should get this distemper among them ; and that they all be 
summoned, and told that as soon as they perceive any of the cows 
refuse their food, or have any other symptoms of this distemper, 
they immediately separate them from the others, and give notice to 
such persons as your Excellencies shall appoint, that they may be 
burned ; and the places where they have stood or grazed ordered 
as before. 



THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 261 

" 6. That the cow-keepers be required to divide their cows into 
small parcels, not more than ten or twelve in a field together ; and 
that they be allowed such satisfaction for complying with these pro- 
posals as your Excellencies shall think fit." * 

These suggestions were accepted and acted upon, forty shillings 
per head being allowed for the sick cows killed by the authorities. 

" Some of the cow-keepers appeared not content with this ar- 
rangement, and, believing that the disease would become general, 
designed to have their cows sold at some distant market, which the 
gentlemen having notice of, appointed several butchers to watch 
near their grounds, and count their numbers every morning, with 
orders to follow such as were sent to market, and to prevent their 
being sold by telling the people what they were. 

" Another great obstacle at first was the cow-keepers not admit- 
ting the disease until they had lost several cows, for, as soon as it 
was known that any man had but one sick, no one would buy his 
milk, and to those who kept many cows the loss was considerable. 

" Nor was there ever wanting one or other who gave them hopes 
of cure. 

" It was endeavored to impress upon the cow-keepers that they 
would receive remuneration for their losses : ' This had a pretty 
good effect, out here in England, where every man is at liberty to 
dispose of his cattle as he pleases, nothing but making them sensible 
that it was each man's particular interest to comply with these 
methods, could do.''" 

The entire loss by this invasion was estimated, including ex- 
penses, at £31,174: Is. Id. 

In 1717, John Morley, of London, published a satirical poem of 
this invasion, which may not be without interest : 

" As soon as Britain had sustained 
That fatal loss which heaven had gained, 
And parties squabbled to a madness 
About their sorrows and their gladness, 
A plague unprophesied succeeded, 
That only reached the horny-headed, 
And like a fatal rot or murrain , 

Turned all our bulls and cows to carrion. 

" The farriers now their skill employed, 
But still the cows in number died, 
And with their horns and hides together 
Were burnt, without reserve of leather. 

* "Animal Plagues," p. 211. 



262 THE HISTORY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 

" Some cunning hucksters, who had cows 
Old, dry, and. lean, not worth a souse, 
Though sound in health, hut scarce deserving 
Of pasture, to prevent their starving, 
They wisely knocked 'em on the head 
By night, when neighbors were in bed. 
Next day assigned their extirpation 
To this new fatal visitation : 
So bore 'em to some distant pit 
Or ditch, for such a purpose fit ; 
There, to the terror of the isle, 
Consumed 'em in their funeral pile. 
Then like true hypocrites, put on 
A mournful look, as if undone, 
And claimed the sum of forty shilling 
For every cow of heaven's killing — 
A generous bounty, that destroyed 
More cattle than the plague annoyed." 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETEK- 
IKAJRY SCHOOLS. 



Theee is no doubt that many of the nations of antiquity had 
some kind of hospitals for the care and treatment of diseased ani- 
mals. We have stated, in a previous part of this work, that veteri- 
narians were appointed to watch over the health of the animals used 
at the circus of Rome, but in this regard the Oriental nations took 
a high rank from their great veneration for all forms of animal life. 
"Wise says : * " The peculiar humanity of the small and despised 
community of modern Buddhists, in the country of their ancient 
greatness, induced them to keep up brute hospitals — Pingra-Pol — 
which are still to be found in different parts of Hindostan. Trevin- 
nier informs us that he found three or four such houses in Aman- 
dabab in 1772 ; and Scavoneur gives an account of the Banian hos- 
pital which still exists at Surat.f " This curious institution is 
supported by one anna per cent on the rupee of the merchants' clear 
gain, to which are added the fines for certain venial offenses, under 
the supervision of the chief Banians. In 1770, when trade had de- 
cayed, the revenue was upward of six hundred pounds a year ; and 
so careful were they of the animals, that bread and milk were pro- 
vided for two that could not crop the grass. The hospital grounds 
extended over twenty-five acres, and were surrounded by a high 
wall, and supplied with sheds and wards for the accommodation of 
the animals. 

" At the present time there are no hospitals for the cure of hu- 
man beings when sick, or maimed, or old, because they were sup- 
posed to be provided for by the Government; while places are 
prepared and persons engaged to attend the sick and aged of the 
inferior animals — proving how much the essential is sacrificed to an 

* Loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 395. 

•f- " If proper inquiry were directed to this building," writes Princeps, " I dare say it 
would be discovered to be a living example (the only one that has braved twenty centu- 
ries) of the humane arts of Asoka, recorded, at no great distance, on a rock in Guzerat." 



264 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

affected refinement of feeling. Kiebuhr found the hospital con- 
taining horses, mules, cows, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, a variety 
of sick and maimed beasts, poultry, pigeons, and birds ; also an old 
tortoise, which was known to have been there seventy-five years. 
In sickness the animals are attended by properly instructed indi- 
viduals with the greatest care, and here they find a peaceable asy- 
lum for the infirmities of age. When an animal broke a limb, 
or was otherwise disabled, its owner brought it to this hospital, 
where it was always received without regard to the caste or na- 
tion of its master. There they remained for life, and the only 
work they were required to perform was drawing water for the pa- 
tients of the hospital. Above-stairs were depositories for seeds 
of many sorts, and flat, broad dishes for water for birds and in- 
sects. 

" In 1823 Sir Alexander Brown visited the brute hospital at 
Surat. It is situated in the suburbs, between the inner and outer 
wall, surrounded by houses and a dense population. It occupies a 
court fifty feet square, to which is attached a large area to admit 
cattle to roam about, and is strewed with grain and straw, to prevent 
the inmates wanting either food or bedding. They receive animals 
of all descriptions, from all countries, as the more numerous they are 
the more they increase the reputation, happiness, and prosperity of 
those who support them. In the hospital Sir Alexander found the 
old, lame, or disabled animals consisted of buffaloes, cows, goats, 
sheep, cocks, and hens ; some of the latter had lost their feathers. 
There were cages to protect the birds, but most of them were empty, 
and a colony of pigeons were fed daily. One of the houses, twenty- 
five feet long, has a boarded floor elevated eight feet, under which 
the Buddhists throw a quantity of grain (the oftener the better for 
themselves), as a work of charity, which in the hot and stagnant air 
gives life to a mass of vermin dense as the sand of the sea-shore." 

The Veterinary Institutions of France. 

It is impossible for me to give more than a very incomplete ac- 
count of the veterinary institutions of Europe, there being no mod- 
ern history of veterinary medicine ; hence I have been obliged to 
collect such information as I could from different articles in maga- 
zines in my possession, though I have derived great aid from the 
article entitled " Yeterinaire " in D'Arboval-Zundel's " Dictionnaire 
de Medecine," etc., Paris, 1877. I have also been fortunate in pos- 
sessing two reports of German veterinarians of unquestionable abil- 
ity, Hertwig and Muller, who visited France at different times in the 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 265 

interest of their own Government. I have myself visited several 
of the German schools, and also that at Alfort, France. 

The Continental schools for the study and development of veteri- 
nary medicine were not founded by the respective governments so 
much to educate men to practice their profession, as to provide men 
capable of studying the nature of those fearful pests which had re- 
peatedly brought poverty to the people, and even threatened nations 
with ruin, and to discover means for their prevention. 

In this regard the French schools took a slightly different course 
from those of Germany, giving more attention to the practical at 
the expense of the scientific in their education ; this reproach is not, 
however, applicable to the French schools of our day, especially 
those at Lyons and Toulouse, although that at Alfort has contrib- 
uted no insignificant amount of scientific work, especially that of 
the veterinary physiologist Colin, and M. Bouley, the inspector-gen- 
eral of the schools. At the time when the first veterinary schools 
were established in France, that nation was approaching the proud 
position of leader in medical science and culture, which she held for 
half a century. Bichat, a giant among giants, founded a new sys- 
tem of anatomy, and died at the early age of thirty-one, a martyr to 
the cause of science and a benefactor to the world. Cruveilhier, the 
author of a noted work upon pathology ; Laennec, the author of per- 
cussion and auscultation ; Broussais, the vampire of medicine, so 
called on account of the extent to which he advocated bleeding ; and 
many others, all tended to make Paris a haven toward which men 
desiring knowledge in this branch of science longingly turned ; 
longing, not like some American women to go to Paris to die, but 
for that wisdom with which her intellectual fountains were so re- 
pletely filled. 

It was but in the order of things that the first veterinary school 
of the world should be started by a Frenchman, and in France. 
This honor belongs to an " advocate," Claude Bourgelat, 1712-79. 
This young man was educated to follow the profession of law, and 
studied at Toulouse. Having by his talent won a case which after- 
ward appeared unjust to him — we wish some of our young American 
lawyers would follow his example! — he resolved to retire from that 
profession, and, having from early youth nourished a passionate 
fondness for the horse, resolved to encourage this taste ; in order to 
do this, he became an officer in a cavalry regiment for a short time, 
and then chief of the riding academy at Lyons, which soon acquired 
great notoriety under the guidance of its enthusiastic teacher. The 
earnest spirit of the young riding-master could not content itself 



266 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

with studying the outward forms of his equine favorites alone — he 
must know more ; he must know of the inner powers, the machinery 
of which this wonderful whole was composed. He therefore gave 
himself most diligently to the study of equine anatomy as well as 
physiology, these studies being encouraged by his friend Pouteau, 
one of the most eminent surgeons of Lyons. At the same time he 
devotedly studied the writings of earlier veterinarians, and published 
two works — "Nouveau Newcastle," 1747, and the "Elements of 
Veterinary Medicine," 1750. Bourgelat has mistakenly been called a 
reformer of veterinary medicine ; on the contrary, his was the spirit 
which gave cause to the birth of scientific research in a branch of 
medicine which until his time had been nothing but the crudest 
empiricism.. The real science in veterinary medicine did not find 
birth till many years after Bourgelat's death. He broke the bonds 
of quackery and superstition to a degree, and gave science room and 
opportunity to develop. In one thing Bourgelat was indeed wiser 
than Lafosse, in that he extended his studies beyond the horse, see- 
ing the necessity of studying the anatomy, physiology, and pathol- 
ogy of all the domestic animals ; but Lafosse was his superior in intel- 
lect, in that freedom of mind which evinced itself in his taking an 
active part for the freedom of his countrymen in the Revolution. 
On the 5th of August, 1761, through the influence of his friend 
Bertin, he received permission to found a school in Lyons, the aim 
of which was to study the diseases of all the domestic animals. The 
Government supported him with the assistance of 50,000 livres, pay- 
able in equal portions for six consecutive years. This school was 
opened to students the 2d of January, 1762, in a small house, for- 
merly used as a hotel, in a suburb of Lyons called " La Guillatiere." 
It soon acquired Continental celebrity, and among the students of 
its first year we find the names of three Danes, three Swedes, three 
Austrians, three Prussians, three Sardinians, and ten Swiss, all sent 
to study the elements of the new medicine by and at the expense of 
their respective governments. The branches at first taught were 
zootomy, especially that of the horse (exterior), horsemanship, phar- 
macy, special pathology, surgery, and the principles of sanitary 
police. 

Scarcely was the foundation of the school successfully accom- 
plished, before France was again the seat of the ravages of the de- 
vastating animal plagues, which gave its students an opportunity to 
display the value of systematic education, crude as it then was, over 
the still cruder but futile attempts of a puerile empiricism. The 
students, guided by the teachings of their master, were so successful 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 267 

as to attract the attention of the king, Louis XV, who in an order 
dated June 30, 1764, gave to the institution the title of a " Royal 
Veterinary School" A month previously the king had honored 
Bourgelat with the title of " Director and General Inspector of the 
Veterinary School at Lyons," and all other such institutions which 
should be founded in France. The intimate relation which Bourge- 
lat bears to the early history of the first two veterinary schools of 
France and the world, makes it almost impossible to treat them 
separately. Such was the success above alluded to, of the students 
of the Lyons school, in combating the ravages of the animal pests, 
that the French Government determined to establish a second insti- 
tution of a like character. It seems ever to have been the aim of 
the French Government to make Paris the center of French learning 
and civilization ; hence it was but natural that a point in the vicin- 
ity of that city should be selected as the site of the second school. 
Therefore, on the 27th of December, 1765, a tract of land in the 
village of Alfort — opposite what is now called Charenton, at pres- 
ent connected with Paris by a horse-railroad, and also by steamboats 
on the river — was purchased for the sum of 32,000 livres, and Bour- 
gelat called to be its director, which position he occupied until his 
death. Like the majority of men who give their lives for the devel- 
opment of science, and in service to their countrymen, Bourgelat 
died poor, but not unforgotten, as is attested by the immortality 
with which his name is reverenced in France, and the monument 
lately erected to his memory by his veterinary successors in France 
and other parts of the world. From the first, the Government did 
more for the support of the school at Alfort than that at Lyons, 
for, while the latter school received but 8,333 livres per year for 
a period of six years, we find the Alfort school receiving some 
12,000. The Abbe Rozier succeeded Bourgelat in the direction of 
the school at Lyons, which for many years underwent all sorts of 
vicissitudes, but finally received its full share of acknowledgment, 
and is at present a most dangerous rival to that of Alfort for the 
honors with which fair Science wreaths the brows of her successful 
children. 

Havemann,* afterward teacher and director of the Royal Veteri- 
nary School at Hanover, was sent by that Government to study vet- 
erinary medicine at Alfort at this time. "While there he wrote the 
following letter, describing the condition of things, to the master 
of the Royal Horse at Hanover : 

* " History of the Veterinary School at Hanover, from 1111 to lS^V p. 45. 



268 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

" Alfort by Charenton, August 29, 1777. 

" The Koyal Veterinary School has, besides the director, M. 
Bourgelat (who, however, does not instruct any more, but resides 
generally in Paris), three teachers. The first, who is known as di- 
rector and professor, educates in practice and pharmacy ; the second 
teaches materia medica and botany, and the third anatomy. The 
majority of the students complete their course in three years, and 
take them in the following order : 

" First Summer. — Exterior of the horse. 

" F'wst Winter. — Osteology and myology. 

" Second Summer. — On the selection of horses, their care, etc. 

" Second Winter. — Splanchnology. 

" Third Summer. — Materia medica and botany. 

" Third Winter. — Neurology, angiology, and adenology. 

" Those students who are blessed with a good memory, and who 
are able to learn anatomy in two winters, end their course in two 
and one half years, while many require four. Here no other books 
are in use than those Bourgelat himself has written upon the subject. 
The books must be learned verbatim from beginning to end ; in 
order that this may be complete, one of the older students, who is 
selected by the director and bears the title of ' chef,' reviews the 
students each week, and explains and illustrates the various points. 
When the course is ended, the whole is again repeated before the 
director, and he who can rattle his books off best receives the pre- 
mium of a case of instruments valued at fifty livres. 

" Those who have ended their course practice operative surgery 
upon the horses which are to be used for anatomy, and also practice 
horseshoeing in the forge. When not confined by the hours devoted 
to study, the students may practice in the forge at pleasure. In mak- 
ing shoes and farriery the instruction is given by a ' chef.' Scarcely 
any instruction is given in pathology, or the director does it in a 
very cursory manner when treating of other subjects ; the director 
seldom detains the students by the sick horses in order that they 
may study the patients, or to explain their diseases to them, which 
can have no other result than that the students do not learn to diag- 
nose diseases, and but few appreciate this great necessity. The 
medicines are prepared by the students and given by them to the 
patients. This is done by those who have ended their course, four 
such being weekly appointed to this purpose. At present there are 
about seventy sick horses in the hospital, and for each the daily fee 
is thirty-five sous (forty cents) for medicine, care, and feeding. The 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 269 

director has exceedingly little to do, and one person can as surely 
give as good instruction to the students as all three professors. The 
students are controlled very strictly. Aside from Sundays and 
Thursdays, no students can leave the grounds of the school without 
permission from the director. Everything is arranged by the ring- 
ing of a bell — getting up, study, attending to patients, eating, and 
retiring. Each student must be in the dissecting-room at 7 a. m. in 
the summer, and 8 in the winter. A chief calls the roll and reports 
each one who is absent. Each student must remain in this room, or 
at least on the grounds, and before 11 no student can go to his room. 
At 2 p. m. the same course is gone through with, and at 6 the stud- 
ies are ended. The students are kept under severe military regula- 
tion, and the 'chefs' arrange the service of the sub-officers. There 
are about eighty students here, of whom twenty are destined for the 
cavalry regiments ; these have special barracks outside the school, 
and are under their own officer ; the rest are lodged in the school, 
and, inclusive of meals, pay yearly 360 livres. The king pays the 
professors. Each student, when he goes into the court-yard, must 
wear the school uniform, which consists of a blue frock with yellow 
buttons, upon which is a lily surrounded by the words ' Ecole roiale 
veterinaire.' The uniform of the ' chefs ' is distinguished by a 
double golden ' tresse ' upon the collar. The botanical garden is 
prettily arranged, and contains 6,700 plants. Nothing seems to have 
been forgotten which can add to the comfort and beauty of the 
school." 

In 1795 the French Government considered the erection of a 
school at Toulouse for the south of France, but it was not until 1825 
that the idea came to realization, Dupuy being its first director. 
This school was intended to give especial attention to the study of 
diseases of cattle, and if one may judge from the efforts of Toussaint 
in reference to " charbon," this intention has been most successful. 

" Alexis Casimir Dupuy * was born at Breteuil, the 27th Sep- 
tember, 1775, and died September, 1849. He was the son of the 
postmaster of his village. It is without doubt that his intimacy 
with horses and other animals in his youth was the cause of his de- 
voting himself to the science which he so faithfully served. His 
first education was received at the college at Beauvais, and later at 
the college of ' Louis le Grand,' at Paris. In 1792, when seven- 
teen years old, we find him, with many other young Frenchmen, in 
the ranks of the revolutionists ; he took part in the battle of Je- 

* Schraeder-Hering, he. cit., p. 111. 



270 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

mappes, where he displayed so much courage as to be honored with 
the standard of his regiment. In 1795 he retired from the army 
and entered the veterinary school at Alfort. Having passed the 
requisite examination successfully, we find him, in 1798, acting as 
assistant at his Alma Mater, and, after passing successfully the re- 
quired competitive examination, received the professorship of Bot- 
any, Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Materia Medica. In 1805 he ac- 
quired the title of Doctor of Medicine, after having devotedly given 
himself to the study of the necessary branches; his dissertation 
treated upon ' Purulent Abscesses and Tumors.' At this time he 
was very intimate with Dupuytren, so well known in the history of 
French medicine at this period. He gave his chief attention to the 
study of pathological anatomy, recognizing the fact that all talk 
about disease is but mere words, unless one knows intimately of 
what disease consists. The first product of his investigation in this 
important branch of medicine was a work which gave rise to much 
discussion, upon ' Tuberculosis, which is generally called Glanders,' 
Paris, 1817. Dieterichs, who studied with him in Paris, says that 
he ' sought to find tubercles everywhere, though no one with healthy 
eyes could see them, and that he would gladly have seen every dis- 
ease classed under this one name, so enthusiastic was he in this 
direction.' His own countrymen seem to have recognized his zeal 
in this direction." 

"With the opening of the Toulouse school, he was called to be its 
director, but his mind was so exclusively scientific that he does not 
seem to have had the attributes necessary to successfully fill such a 
position, for in 1832 he was discharged, even without a pension. 
He then removed to Paris, and engaged in practice and the publi- 
cation of books, but his endeavors do not appear to have been re- 
warded by success, for he left his family in such a destitute con- 
dition that the Central Yeterinary Society of Paris felt themselves 
obliged to institute a collection for their benefit. 

During the extension of the empire under Napoleon I the estab- 
lishment of three other veterinary schools was considered, but only 
one came to a positive result — that at Turin, Italy, which is still in 
existence. 

The French schools have from the beginning enjoyed a creditable 
independence from those of medicine, though not without attempts 
aiming to unite these two branches of medical education. At first 
they were under the control of the Minister of the Interior, but 
later have been controlled by the Minister of Agriculture, Com- 
merce, and Industry, assisted by an inspector-general, that position 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 271 

being occupied by the accomplished M. Bouley, member of the 
Academy, etc. In the year 1777 the French Government published 
very detailed regulations for the guidance of the schools, which have 
suffered but few modifications to the present day, although their 
organization as part of a common institution of the land was not 
fully completed until May 19, 1873, when a decree to that effect 
was issued. 

In accordance with this decree, the students are classed as " eleves 
internes," or regular students, " eleves externes," and " auditeurs 
libres " ; of these, the first form by far the greater majority. On 
account of the similarity of organization, a visit to one of the three 
national schools will give an observer a very good idea of them all. 

The number of professors is the same at each of the three schools, 
being six, and an irregular number of " chefs de service," or assist- 
ants. The professors and assistants receive their appointment from 
the minister, after having demonstrated their ability by public com- 
petition for the vacancy in question. These competitions are made 
known to the public in appropriate publications, some six months 
before they are to take place. Each competitor must be a French- 
man by birth or naturalized, and a graduate of one of the national 
schools. If the competition is for a place as assistant, the person 
must bring a certificate that he is free from military duty, or that 
he has permission to present himself for the purpose. 

The competition is generally divided into five sittings or parts : 
at the first, the competitors have to present an essay upon some sub- 
ject in connection with the vacancy which is open; in the second 
and third, they have to deliver oral dissertations of a like character ; 
in the fourth, in connection with any subject belonging to veterinary 
medicine ; in the fifth, they must show their practical ability in 
different branches of the profession. The tasks for the second, 
third, and fourth sittings are made known to the candidates twenty- 
four hours before each sitting. The candidates for the positions of 
" chefs de service " must make known their intention of competing 
one month previous to the date fixed for competition. In the year 
1871 the budget ordered for the support of the veterinary schools 
was 673,000 francs; and in 1873, 656,500. No perquisites are 
allowed the professors for examinations, the money received for the 
same being added to the school funds ; in the place of this the pro- 
fessors receive 500 francs a year in addition to their regular pay. 
At Alfort, all officers of the school have free lodgings found them, 
each professor having six rooms, two being situated on each story of 
a three-storied building. Each assistant has three rooms at his service. 



272 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

In 1876 the corps of professors at Alfort were as follow : 

M. Reynal (since retired and pensioned), Director and Lecturer 
on Veterinary Jurisprudence ; M. Gouboux, Lecturer on Descriptive 
and General Anatomy, Histology, Physiology, and Exterior; M. 
Baillet, Lecturer on Breeding, Hygiene, Zoology, and Botany ; M. 
Saunier, Lecturer on Physics, Chemistry, Materia Medica, and Pharma- 
cy ; M. Colen, Lecturer on General Pathology, Therapeutics, Surgery, 
Parasitic Diseases, and Horseshoeing ; M. Trasbot, Superintendent 
of Clinic, Lecturer on Special and Surgical Pathology. The " chefs 
de service " were M. Baron, assistant to and repeater upon those 
subjects upon which M. Baillet lectures. He also conducts the ex- 
cursions to the model farm situated about a mile from the institu- 
tion, as well as to the cattle and horse markets of Paris, and botani- 
cal excursions ; M. Barrier, assistant to and repeater of the subjects 
lectured upon by M. Gouboux, also teacher of histological micro- 
scopical practice ; M. Nocard, assistant in the clinic and surgery, 
and demonstrator of autopsies ; M. Baillet, assistant in clinic and 
surgery. 

The course of study occupies four years, the lectures lasting one 
hour and a half each. The sessions are divided as follows : 

First Session ( Winter). — Anatomy, physics or chemistry, bota- 
ny or zoology. These subjects are reviewed by M. Barrier during 
the session. 

Second Session. — Chemistry or materia medica, exterior or gen- 
eral anatomy. Reviewed by M. Barrier. 

Third Session. — Anatomy, physics or chemistry, botany or zool- 
ogy, general pathology, and therapeutics. Reviewed by M. Barrier. 

Fourth Session. — Physiology, general anatomy, botany, micro- 
scopy, and chemical analysis. Reviewed by M. Barrier. 

Fifth Session. — Special pathology, therapeutics, hygiene, general 
pathology, agriculture ; clinic is held three hours each day on week- 
days, and two on Sundays. 

Sixth Session. — Special pathology and surgery, hygiene, phar- 
maceutical practice, general pathology, therapeutics, parasitic dis- 
eases, theories of operative surgery, and agriculture. Clinic as be- 
fore. These subjects are reviewed by assistants Baron, Eocard, and 
Baillet. 

Seventh Session. — Practice in operative surgery, special patholo- 
gy and surgery, parasitic diseases, agriculture, forensic medicine, 
sanitary police, and excursions to the cattle and horse markets. 
Clinic as before. Subjects reviewed by MM. JSTocard and Baillet. 

Eighth Session. — Practice in operative surgery, special patholo- 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 273 

gy and surgery, parasitic diseases, breeding, agriculture, toxicology. 
Excursions to the model farm. Clinic as before. Subjects reviewed 
by appropriate assistants. 

The lectures on agriculture were then delivered by M. Heuze. 
The subject of dissection has not been mentioned in the above 
course, because of the irregularity of the hours devoted to it. 

The above plan is open to some criticism : one is at a loss to 
understand why the word " or " is placed between so many branches, 
except that the lecturer will dilate upon one " or " the other subject 
at the lecture in question. Pathological anatomy is not mentioned, 
but is treated at the same time with general pathology. Surgery 
and special pathology are united in one series of lectures, and the 
important branch of obstetrics is not mentioned, although we have 
reason to know it is not neglected. Professor Muller says that 
" when one adds the number of hours devoted to lectures in the four 
years' course of the French schools, he is surprised to find that they 
are exceeded by the number required by the (former) three years' 
course at Berlin." The number of professors at the French schools 
is insufficient to do the work well that is required of them, and they 
should be relieved by the addition of a greater number of special- 
ists. We shall see this plan better carried out when we come to 
speak of the school at Berlin, although there is room for still further 
improvement there, so far as the clinic is concerned. At the French 
schools the distribution of the studies over the educational term is 
not conducive to the best interests of the scholars, too little being 
required of them during the early part of their studies, and too 
much toward their completion. This is equalized by the great 
number of repetitions to which they are subjected by the assistants. 
Clinical practice and surgery assume an undue prominence in the 
French system, to the cost of pathological anatomy and the funda- 
mental elements upon which medical science rests. It should ever 
be remembered, in establishing a school for the education of men in 
the principles of medicine, that the highly-prized practical man 
never advances science an iota ; he is a money-getter, not a servant of 
his race ; this has been most emphatically emphasized by the schools 
of Britain, where practice has been the one desideratum, and sci- 
ence almost totally neglected. The union of both in one person 
makes the perfect practitioner in veterinary as well as hum^an prac- 
tice. One might suppose that the clinic of the Alfort school would 
suffer from its being so distant from Paris, but this does not appear 
to be the case, the country around being well populated. At the 
time of Miiller's visit, which was during the vacation in the sum- 

18 



274 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

mer of 1876, the clinic was restricted as much as possible on ac- 
count of the absence of students, yet there were forty horses and 
twenty dogs in the hospital. A free clinic is also held daily at the 
school, and is visited by fifty or sixty patients each day. The sta- 
bles have room for about fifty horses, and the dog-hospital accom- 
modates the same number of patients. The school is provided 
with a special room for operations, with raised steps, arranged in 
a semicircle, for the students to stand upon. The pharmacy dis- 
penses the medicines used at the schools, and gives abundant op- 
portunity for the students to become expert in the knowledge and 
preparation of drugs. The stables are excellently arranged in the 
form of a horseshoe, the operating saloon being the center or toe ; 
two forges also join it, one on each side, the full clinic being held 
in the space between the wings. The collection of surgical imple- 
ments at this school is very complete and well arranged. The 
school fails in not having the ambulatory clinic, common to the Ger- 
man schools, by which students obtain an acquaintance with much 
outside, especially herd practice. This is in a measure made up for 
by the visits which the French students make to the governmental 
model farms in the vicinity of the schools. The two rooms devoted 
to the practice of dissection are of middling size, high, and well 
lighted and ventilated. The anatomical lectures are held in one of 
these rooms, and there is an amphitheatre for the students to stand 
upon. Between these rooms is the room of the professor, overlook- 
ing both by means of windows. The students at Alfort belonging 
to the first and third sessions have separate rooms for anatomical 
practice, and also have different lectures. Those of the first session 
hear lectures upon osteology, syndesmology, and myology, and those 
of the third the remaining parts of anatomy. The practice of anat- 
omy by the students of the first session is not begun until they have 
heard lectures on osteology, the dissection practice being limited to 
muscles and ligaments. The contents of abdominal, thoracic, and 
cranial cavities are passed to the students of the third session. 
The students of each class are forbidden to visit the rooms of the 
other. Both classes are divided into sections of twelve to fifteen 
students, half of the students of the first and third classes practicing 
dissection for one week, when not attending lectures, and then the 
other half, and so on alternately during the winter months. Each 
section has at its disposition one cadaver, and they are distributed 
to students of each section as above mentioned. During the week 
eight cadavers are generally given to the students, and one is used 
by the professor. Besides these, some twelve to fifteen cattle are 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 275 

purchased each year for the study of anatomy. Forty to fifty horses 
and ten or twelve cattle are also purchased each winter for the study 
of operative surgery, and the practice is also kept up in summer. 
In the course of the year some two hundred and fifty horses are 
used for these purposes at Alf ort. They are bought by the school — 
the students paying no additional fees or buying themselves — and 
are supplied by a company in Paris, at about forty francs per head, 
the same company again receiving the remains after the school is 
done with them. The amount appropriated by the Government for 
these purposes alone is some eight to nine thousand francs per year, 
exclusive of the amount paid for cattle. During the fourth session 
the study of microscopical anatomy takes place ; for this purpose the 
students are divided into sections of twelve, and practice one week 
at a time, the specified hours and turns coming round about once a 
month. The school possesses six microscopes, so that, unless a stu- 
dent possesses one himself, two students must be appointed to each 
microscope. The anatomical museum does not make the favorable 
impression which one might expect from the long existence of the 
school ; it fails in richness of material and systematic arrangement. 
The number of normal skeletons is very small, scarcely six being 
observable. Among them is the skeleton of a thorough-bred horse, 
which was killed on account of having its forearm shattered by a 
ball at the time Fieschi made an attempt upon the life of Louis 
Philippe. The collection contains numerous dried preparations of 
muscles and ligaments, among them that of a horse upon which is 
seated what was once a man and groom at Alf ort, who desired that 
his body should be preserved in this way. The most interesting and 
instructive collection is that of the teeth of the domestic animals, 
arranged so as to show their condition at each year of the animal's 
life. There are also many interesting artificial preparations of 
papier-mache and wax. The pathological collection contains a very 
extensive array of preparations illustrating those processes as they 
take place in rinderpest. Not more than ten specimens of mon- 
strosities were observable. The individual preparations are tastefully 
mounted, but the systematic arrangement is poor. A zoological 
collection is being begun, owing to the distance of the school from 
the museums at Paris. A large, well- arranged botanical garden 
helps to make up the appurtenances of the school. The institution 
has also excellently arranged stables for some twenty-five cows, two 
hundred sheep and swine. The library of the school contains over 
ten thousand volumes, mostly French works, however ; it was 
greatly enriched at the death of the noted veterinary author, Hu- 



276 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

zard, whose library of some forty thousand volumes was pretty well 
distributed among the three French schools. The school has a special 
librarian, who also serves as curator of the museum. Students are 
allowed to read the books at certain hours, but are not permitted to 
leave the room while there, or to take books to their rooms. None 
but the professors can take books to their residences. The school 
also possesses a well-arranged riding academy, having some twenty- 
five horses, and a riding-master for the instruction of the students. 
It also has a room fitted up for the students to practice music. 

The Students. — It has been previously mentioned that the stu- 
dents are divided up into three classes, viz., the internal or regular 
students, the free students, and those known as external students, 
who come and go as they please. In the summer of 1876, Miiller 
reports that there were at Alfort 275 regular students, 35 external, 
and 12 free students — the latter being mostly foreigners. The 
"eleves externes" are generally students that did not present them- 
selves at the end of the fourth year for examination, and are study- 
ing, of their own free-will, the fifth, or those who have been put 
back one year and lost the support of the Government. For admit- 
tance, a student must not be under seventeen or over twenty-five 
years of age. Each student must present a certificate of birth, and 
the attestation of a doctor that he has been properly vaccinated, or 
has had the small-pox, and that he possesses a healthy physique, espe- 
cially that he is free from scrofula ; also an attestation from the supe- 
rior officer of his locality — mayor or prefect — that he has a good moral 
character. Students over twenty years of age must also bring a cer- 
tificate that they have fulfilled their military duties, or been freed 
therefrom. Their acceptance is dependent upon the consent of the 
minister having control of the schools. The students present them- 
selves at the schools for the first time about the beginning of Octo- 
ber (6th ?), and are then subjected to a matriculatory examination, 
which consists in writing on dictation something in the French lan- 
guage, and analyzations of portions of the same ; in arithmetic they 
must have a knowledge of its principal elements, of the decimal sys- 
tem, and arithmetical and geometric proportion ; in geometry, a 
knowledge of its principal elements ; in geography, a general idea 
of the geography of the world, and a special knowledge of that of 
France. They also have to write an essay, or something like it, 
upon history and geography. Special favors are given to those ap- 
plicants who possess the title of " bachelier es lettres et sciences." 
For a certain number of students, the " eleves internes," the Gov- 
ernment supplies lodgings, the school at Alfort affording accommo- 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 277 

dation for 275, and generally all these places are occupied. These 
students pay a yearly fee of six hundred francs for education, lodg- 
ing, heating, light, board, washing, etc., and the other two classes 
pay a yearly fee of two hundred francs. 

Those students that have passed the necessary matriculatory. ex- 
amination, and for whom there is not the necessary lodging-robm, 
have the right to enter as external students, not being then subjected 
to internal regulations of the school ; but few, however, take advan- 
tage of this privilege, most of them preferring to wait another year 
for financial reasons, rooms, etc. The exclusion from the " inter- 
nat," or school boarding-house, is considered the severest punishment 
which can come upon a student. Only one third of the " eleves in- 
ternes " pay this six hundred francs from their own means ; two 
thirds of them are the recipients of so-called " demi-bourses," or 
stipends, which equal the fees paid by the other third. To receive 
them, however, the student must first have been at the school six 
months, and have demonstrated his worthiness by appropriate con- 
duct, diligence, etc. These stipends are paid every half-year, and 
as a rule are enjoyed by the students during their whole course of 
study, being only withdrawn in case of gross misconduct or want 
of proper knowledge, in proportion to the time the recipient has 
studied. 

There are three sources from which these stipends come, viz., the 
prefects of departments, the Government, and the military funds. 
Each department has two stipends to pay toward the support of one 
of the veterinary schools. There are certain regulations to be com- 
plied with for the reception of the military stipends. The " eleves 
boursiers militaires," or military students, receive, aside from the 
benefits of the " internat," clothing, rent, the necessary books and 
instruments, and a small amount of pocket-money, in addition to 
which the Government pays the examination fee of one hundred 
francs ; whereas the other students having the benefit of the " in- 
ternat " have to pay all such expenses. The military administration 
provides for sixty stipends, all of which were enjoyed by Alfort pre- 
vious to 1876, but they are now so divided that Alfort receives 
thirty and the schools at Lyons and Toulouse fifteen each. The 
military students, after becoming twenty years of age, are required 
to sign agreements by which they promise to serve in the army for 
five years, but are, during their course of study, generally free from 
military regulations. The number of students at Lyons and Tou- 
louse is somewhat less than at Alfort. The whole number of stu- 
dents at these schools is, in general, about 600, so that each year 



278 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

would give to France somewhere about 150 newly graduated veteri- 
narians. (The number of civil veterinary surgeons in France was 
in 1860, 2,760 ; in 1871, 3,036 ; in 1875, 3,019.) Every two or four 
students at Alfort have a room in which they sleep only, otherwise 
they are in the study or lecture rooms the whole day ; each year- 
student having a separate study-room appropriated to his use, ex- 
cept that the third and fourth year students have a study-room in 
common. They are allowed certain hours for recreation, in which 
they are permitted to visit one another in the different study-rooms, 
or to roam over the court and garden of the institute. The meals 
are taken in a common room (refectoire) at fixed hours, and are 
good and sufficient. Each Sunday a " bill of fare " is posted in this 
room for the ensuing week, which has been inspected by the direct- 
or, and indorsed by him. The students are continually under the 
eye of certain officers — " surveillants " — who have their discipline in 
charge during the hours of study. On Sundays the students are 
permitted to go outside the school, the roll being called at 11.30 p. m. 
On the first Sunday of every month they are allowed to remain out 
until 12.30, that they may attend the theatres in the city. They are 
only allowed to receive visitors at certain hours, and in rooms near 
the gate appointed for the purpose. On entering the school one is 
immediately struck with the peculiar blue frock worn by all the stu- 
dents, which would, however, give a far better appearance of uni- 
formity were they obliged to wear the same form of hat or cap. 

There is no state examination at the French schools as in Ger- 
many ; on the contrary, the students are subjected to repeated ex- 
aminations by the assistants, and at the end of each session by the 
professors in their respective branches. The result of these sessional 
provings is, that students found unsatisfactory are put back for a 
year in their course, and lose the advantages of the " internat," or 
are sent from the school. The final examination for the diploma 
of the French Government is simply a more extended sessional 
examination. Of late, the professors have been ordered by the 
Government to prove the students in the branches of the first two 
sessions of their course. This examination is further distinguished 
from the ordinary sessional in that each student must attend to two 
sick animals in the hospital and perform three operations. (It 
should be mentioned here that in the French schools, other Conti- 
nental schools also, the students have a certain number of patients 
under their entire charge during the whole course of their hospital 
practice, being simply guided and questioned by the clinical teach- 
ers. This amounts to the same thing as being in practice while 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE. 279 

studying, and offers the great advantage of a competent adviser 
and consulting assistant.) Aside from an anatomico-physiological 
essay, the examination is entirely oral. Each professor hands in an 
account, with reference to each student examined, in the form of a 
number, which is inclosed and sealed ; these numbers are then added 
together in a somewhat complicated manner. 

Hertwig, who visited the French schools in 1871, in speaking 
of the veterinary condition outside the schools, says that the civil 
veterinarian is entirely dependent upon his practice for a livelihood, 
there being no civil official veterinarians, as in Germany, occupy- 
ing positions for which they are paid by the Government. Miil- 
ler, who visited the school in 1876, and whose report I have mostly 
followed, also says the same thing; "but that in some depart- 
ments there are so-called ' arrondissements ' which receive from the 
communal funds from three to six hundred francs per year, but 
they are not connected directly with the Government, and their pay 
is yearly resumed." A revision of the " Laws and Regulations of 
France for the Prevention and Suppression of Contagious Animal 
Diseases " has lately been made by the Government (1879), but I 
have failed to see any indication of the division of that country 
into departments and districts, with its appropriate government 
veterinarian, as we shall see is the case in Germany when we come 
to speak of the veterinary institutions of that country. Such may 
be in contemplation, however, and will be a great gain for the pro- 
fession in that country. There are, however, municipal and local 
veterinary officials stationed as inspectors of markets, horse-fairs, 
and the like. Notwithstanding most earnest remonstrance on the 
part of the veterinary profession of France for many years, the 
Government has not yet taken the steps it should for the protection 
of the holders of its own diploma, by enacting laws for the suppres- 
sion of quackery, which renders the task of gaining an honest living 
unnecessarily difficult for the graduated members of the profession, 
for the quack is ever ready with infallible cure-alls, and is ever such 
a glutton and an unprincipled wretch that he will work for any fee, 
no matter how small ; and, on the other hand, frequently gets fees 
for services rendered which a graduated man would scarce have the 
effrontery to ask. All that the Government does is to make known 
in a public print that the veterinarian is the holder of a government 
diploma when he settles in a district to practice. These conditions 
are made still more onerous by the large number of graduates which 
are yearly turned out from the schools. " In 1871 the department 
of the Seine, inclusive of Paris and the school at Alfort, and several 



280 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

military veterinarians, had 115. Of these, four were attached to 
the Ministry of War, two to the omnibus companies, one as in- 
spector of the horse-market, two as inspectors at the slaughter- 
houses, one to the market-police, and one to the court stables. 

" The military organization is, on the contrary, well arranged, 
and the army veterinarians are well placed, both in regard to their 
rank and pecuniarily. According to the decree of 1860, the French 
army had in all its departments 337 veterinarians, who enjoyed the 
following positions : 4 principal, 120 first class, and 128 second 
class, and 25 assistant veterinarians. The yearly pay of the chiefs 
was 4,000 francs, and that of the assistants 1,800. "When the chiefs 
were retired, they received a pension of 2,340 francs, which could 
be increased to 3,744. Two of these veterinarians were members 
of the commission ' d'hygiene hippique ' at the Ministry of War, 
and a third was veterinary to the Guards, and resided in Paris. A 
fourth was stationed as superior veterinarian at the cavalry-school 
at Saumur, and a fifth in a similar position with the troops and 
royal stud in Algeria, under the rank of ' etat major.' The other 
three classes have also the rank of officer, with corresponding pay : 
for the first class, 1,700 francs as minimal, and 2,760 as maximal ; 
the second class from 1,400 to 2,800 francs; and the assistants from 
1,300 to 2,112 francs. On the other hand, the value of veterinary 
science has been from the early days of schools well acknowledged 
by the members of the Academy and other scientific societies in 
France, and members of the profession have taken no second rank 
among the scientists of France and the world. At the present day 
the literary-scientific horizon of France has no more refulgent lights 
than Chauveau, Toussaint, Bouley, Colin, Megnin, and other mem- 
bers of the veterinary profession." 

The Veterinary Institute at Vienna, Austria. 

With the termination of the school-term for 1877, this institution 
began a second centennial existence, and it is to be hoped its pros- 
perity and usefulness will go on increasing as the years pass on. 
The school is known as the " Koyal Military Veterinary Institute of 
Vienna." Professor Dr. Roell, its late director, gave a complete 
sketch of its history for the first hundred years of its existence in 
the " Oesterreichse Vierteljahrsschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Vete- 
rinarkunde," vol. xlviii ; to which are added lithographic illustra- 
tions of the grounds and buildings. This periodical (quarterly) has 
been issued by the faculty of the institute since the year 1851, and 
contains many articles of value. The establishment of this school 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTE AT VIENNA, AUSTRIA. 281 

was preceded by the opening of a school for the treatment of the 
diseases of the horse and operative practice in 1764, with the con- 
sent and support of the Government, by an Italian named Luigi 
Scotti, who, in company with an apothecary named Mengmann, was 
sent by Maria Theresa to Lyons to study the principles of veterinary 
medicine. During this visit to France Scotti received 420 guldens 
each year from the- Government. On their return they presented 
the Government with a proposal for the erection of a school, and 
recommended a course of two years, considering the study of 
anatomy as the most important subject. They recommended that 
the students be taken from among the experienced smiths of the 
army, that could read and write, and felt confident that they 
could make competent veterinarians in the time mentioned. Ac- 
cording to their plan of instruction, general anatomy, osteology, 
and exterior, were to' be taught in the fall, as well as horse- 
shoeing, upon which great stress was laid ; in winter, myology and 
practice in horseshoeing ; and in spring and summer, a knowledge 
of the useful plants, their preparations and use. The second year 
was little more than a repetition of the first, with the exception 
that the students were made acquainted with disease and its treat- 
ment by hospital practice. There were but two teachers attached 
to the school, which was opened January 12, 1767, the whole being 
under the supervision of a military official, who attended to the gen- 
eral order, cleanliness, and deportment of the students. The pur- 
pose of the school was limited to the education of better qualified 
smiths for the army, and only army horses were treated therein. 
The students were taken for the full two-years' course, and only at 
the expiration of the same were new students taken. 

While this horse-school was still in active operation, J. Gottlieb 
"Wolstein, surgeon, and a selected military farrier by the name of 
Schmid, were sent by the Minister of War to Alfort, to carefully 
study the principles and practice of veterinary medicine as there 
taught. Both of them were paid by the Government, as well as hav- 
ing an allowance for the necessary expense, in return for which they 
were obliged to bind themselves for life to serve the Government, 
and on their return Wolstein was named as professor and Schmid as 
assistant. 

Schraeder* says : " Joh. Gottlieb Wolstein, Doctor of Medicine 
and Surgery, was born at Flinsberg, in Silesia, March 14, 1738, 
and died at Altona, near Hamburg, July 3, 1820. He at first gave 
his attention to the study of surgery for nine years at Yienna, and 

* Loc. cit., p. 476. 



282 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

in 1769 was sent to France by the Austrian Government to study 
veterinary medicine under Bourgelat and Chabert, where he at the 
same time studied human medicine in the Paris hospitals, as well as 
taking an active interest in the work of Lafosse between the years 
1772-73. In 1773 he visited London, and, on his return to Austria, 
Denmark, Mecklenburg, Holland, and in 1779 took the degree of 
Doctor of Medicine and Surgery at Jena. The school at Vienna 
bore witness to the practical abilities possessed by "Wolstein. In the 
year 1795 he received his discharge from the Vienna school, but it 
is not known whether it was owing to his free-thinking tendencies 
(for he was the first Protestant who received an appointment in the 
state service of Austria), or to other circumstances. Wolstein was 
a most extensive author, nearly all his works bearing testimony to 
his clear-headedness and practical ability. Among other things, he 
was the first to establish the causal connection between an accumu- 
lation of fluids in the lateral ventricles of the brain of the horse, 
causing the condition known in German as " Dummkoller " ; 
French, " immobility " ; Latin, " amentia." He also wrote a book 
upon the " Scientific Breeding of Human Beings." 

On his return to Austria he gave the Government his ideas with 
reference to the formation of a veterinary school, and on the 23d of 
July, 1777, he received from the Government 13,740 florins toward 
the erection of the school ; and on the 26th of December, 1877, the 
Government issued the instructions for the regulation of the school, 
which was soon opened. 

The personnel of the school at this time consisted of one pro- 
fessor, one superior assistant, two assistants, and a number of half- 
invalided soldiers, necessary to the care of the animals in the hos- 
pital ; also one inspecting officer, and one farrier. The school and 
hospital were placed under the control of the Minister of War, and 
the supervision given to a brigadier. In the buildings were pro- 
vided lodgings for the teachers of the school, and seventy army 
farriers, as students. To the school belonged a botanical garden, 
an anatomical saloon, a lecture-room, dispensary, laboratory, and 
library ; a smithy with four fires ; four stables, with room in each 
for seven horses ; fifteen separate stalls (probably boxes), and a 
small stable for cattle and sheep. The instruction was divided as 
follows, and extended for two years : 

Professor Dr. "Wolstein lectured upon the theoretical and prac- 
tical application of the principles of medicine to the diseases of the 
horse. 

First Assistant Schmid lectured upon horseshoeing, and demon- 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTE AT VIENNA, AUSTRIA. 2S3 

strated and supervised operative surgery, and represented Wolstein 
when the latter was unable to be present. 

Assistant Toegl (1779) demonstrated anatomy, and Mengmann 
controlled the pharmacy, and lectured upon medical botany and 
pharmacy. The military students came either from cavalry regi- 
ments or were selected by the school from among young smiths who 
displayed unusual ability. The students must be under thirty years 
of age, unmarried, natives of Austria (Hungary also ?), of perfect 
physique and good moral education, and be able to read and write 
in the German language. 

The admittance of civil students was dependent upon the judg- 
ment of the teachers, who were made responsible for the ability and 
character of the same. 

From 1778 to 1799, 178 military, 137 civil, and 144 foreign 
students graduated at the school. 

During this period, 4,208 army horses were treated, of which 
3,665 recovered, 291 were discharged uncured, and 252 were killed. 
In 1806 numerous changes were made in the buildings and some in 
the curriculum, the intention of the school being to educate superior 
and ordinary farriers for the army, " Kurschmieden " (farriers edu- 
cated in the principles of medicine), veterinary surgeons, and ordi- 
nary farriers. The course was still continued at two years : in the 
first year, horseshoeing, anatomy, pharmaceutical chemistry, physi- 
ology, exterior of the horse, breeding ; in the second year, therapeu- 
tics, pharmacology, and veterinary police. The military students 
were compelled to work from 6 to 11.30 a. m. and from 3 to 6 p. m. 
in the forge. The personnel of the school was increased by a pro- 
fessor of pathology and another of anatomy. The school was lim- 
ited to forty military students — thirty-five from the cavalry regi- 
ments, and five for the royal studs. In 1809 it was ordered that 
all must he taught which belongs to veterinary medicine, and not 
limited to the horse alone. In 1812 the school was united with 
the university at Vienna, the military inspection being limited to 
supervision of the military students. In the year 1823 a revision 
of the school was again undertaken, which remained unchanged 
until 1849, and suffered but few modifications until 1857. The aim 
of the institute was to give full instruction in the principles of 
veterinary medicine. 

The form of instruction was appointed to the necessities of the 
different kinds of students : 

1. Common farriers, i. e., such who, after completion of their 
course, were considered educated for the profession of horseshoers. 



284 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

On their admittance they were obliged to certify that they had 
already served a practical apprenticeship, and be able to read and 
write. The course of study extended over one year, during which 
they received instruction in the theories of horseshoeing, and upon 
the anatomy and physiology of the horse's hoof, the materia medica 
and special therapy of the horse, and were obliged to visit the school 
hospital. 

2. Agriculturists. — The conditions of their admittance were a 
good knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and proof of 
having attended the necessary lectures at a public school of agricul- 
ture. The course was limited to one year, in which they heard lec- 
tures upon the natural history of the domestic animals, the princi- 
ples of breeding, the care of the domestic animals, and upon the 
animal pests and their prevention. 

3. Officers, Riding-Masters, and Masters of the Horse. — Officers 
had to be furnished with certificates of permission to attend the 
school ; the others with certificates of faithful performance of their 
duties, and of their ability to read and write. The course also lasted 
one year, and was limited to natural history, breeding, equine hygi- 
ene, theory of horseshoeing, anatomy and physiology of the horse, 
the management of breeding studs, exterior, and equine jurispru- 
dence. 

4. Future Physicists (" Kiinf tige Physiker "), who could only 
become practitioners of the third, and doctors of the second year's 
course of the medico-surgical branches. The lecturers were lim- 
ited to the theories of animal plagues and veterinary police for one 
session. 

5. a. Inspectors of Animal and Meat Markets. — On their admit- 
tance they had to bring certificates of ability to slaughter well, and 
be able to read and write. The course was limited to twelve hours, 
during which they received demonstrations of the chief parts of ani- 
mals used for food, and of the diseases which made them unfit for 
that purpose, and lectures upon the laws and ordinances regulating 
such business. 

b. Cattle-drovers and Shepherds. — The course extended over two 
months, and consisted of instruction in the care and feeding of ani- 
mals, upon those things which could incite disease, of their preven- 
tion, and upon the common diseases, and the first principles of treat- 
ment necessary in case a veterinarian could not be had. 

c. Hunters. — The instruction consisted of a popular form of 
education upon the dog and its diseases, with especial reference to 
rabies. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTE AT VIENNA, AUSTRIA. 285 

6. "Kurschmiede " {Farriers with authority to treat certain dis- 
eases of the horse). — The course was two years, and all applicants 
had to bring certificates of ability to shoe horses, and as to their 
having faithfully served their allotted time in the army, and be able 
to read and write. In the first year they attended lectures upon the 
elements of physics and chemistry, equine anatomy and physiology, 
and therapeutics and materia medica; in the second, the special 
pathology and therapy of equine diseases, surgery, operative sur- 
gery and obstetrics, exterior, breeding, forensic equine medicine 
and practice in relation to the external and internal diseases of the 
horse ; further, anatomy and physiology were again repeated. 

7. Veterinary Surgeons. — None hut graduated doctors or wound 
doctors were admitted. The course also lasted two years : the first 
being devoted to natural history, dietetics, breeding, hygiene, anat- 
omy and physiology of the domestic animals, general pathology and 
therapeutics ; the second to special pathology and therapeutics, 
theoretic and operative surgery, exterior, breeding, forensic equine 
medicine, contagious diseases and veterinary police, literature of 
veterinary medicine, practical exercise in the hospitals, and repeti- 
tion of anatomy and physiology. 

The faculty consisted of five professors, receiving 2,000, 1,500, 
1,200, and 1,000 florins each, with free lodging and other perqui- 
sites ; also four assistants, receiving 700, 600, 500, and 400 florins. 

On the 17th of November, 1823, the corner-stone of the new 
school was laid with appropriate ceremonies, and in the presence of 
many of the nobility and noted personages. In this year the com- 
mencement of a library was begun in earnest by an appropriation of 
three thousand florins, but at the present day a yearly sum is appro- 
priated to the purpose. In the year 1835 an institution for experi- 
ments with reference to the variola of sheep was added to the in- 
stitution and continued until 1864. In the year 181fi the institution 
was separated from the university, and has since remained indepen- 
dent, subject to the control of the Ministry of War. In 1871 the cur- 
riculum again suffered revision, and was placed in its present form ; 
the purpose of the school being to educate civil and military vet- 
erinarians, and also civil and military horseshoers / aside from 
this it must do its utmost to forward veterinary science, and is the 
highest technical authority with reference to contagious animal dis- 
eases and their suppression. The director also acts as adviser in all 
things with reference to the military veterinary institutions at the 
Ministry of "War. The guidance of the school is dependent upon 
the director and the military supervisor. The latter is directly sub- 



286 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

servient to the Minister of "War, and conducts the institute in its re- 
lation to the military organization, supervising the internal arrange- 
ments and the discipline of the servants and students. The director 
controls the scientific-technical parts of the institution. The teach- 
ers are represented by professors, docents, adjuncts, assistants, and 
a teacher of horseshoeing. The number of professors is limited to 
six, one of whom is director. The subjects taught are as follow, 
divided among the following professors and assistants : 

Director (1877), Moriz F. Roell,* and Lecturer upon Animal 
Pests, their Causes and Prevention ; also Conductor of the Liner 
Clinic. 

Professor Franz Miiller, Lecturer on Zootomy, the Theories of 
Shoeing, Exterior, and Conductor of the Dog Hospital. 

Professor Andreas Bruckmiiller (recently deceased), Lecturer on 
Breeding, Obstetrics, and Zoophysiology. Professor Bruckmuller 
is the author of the only text-book extant on " Animal Pathological 
Anatomy," which is too largely founded upon Pokitansky to be un- 
critically followed at the present day, however. 

Professor Franz August Armbrecht, Lecturer on Yeterinary 
Surgery and Operative Surgery, and Conductor of the Surgical 
Clinic. 

Professor Leopold Forster, Lecturer on Special Pathology and 
Therapeutics, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Botany, Instruments 
and Bandages, their Uses and Application. 

Professor Franz Zahn, Lecturer on General Pathology, Patho- 
logical Zootomy, and Forensic Medicine. 

The lectures in Chemistry are delivered by Professor Dr. I. 
Moser, of the Agricultural Academy. 

Adjuncts. — Max von Paumgartten, Assistant Lecturer on Zo- 
otomy, Exterior, and Theoretic Horseshoeing. 

Paimund Koezil, Assistant Lecturer on Path.-Zootomy, Forensic 
Medicine, and Cattle and Meat Inspection. 

Franz Konhauser, Assistant in the Medical Clinic, and Teach- 
er of Special Pathology and Therapeutics. 

Josef Bayer, Assistant in the Surgical Clinic, and Teacher of 
Yeterinary Surgery and Operations; also Lecturer on Yeterinary 
Literature and History. 

Johann Csokor, Assistant-Lecturer on Breeding and Zoophysi- 
ology. 

Assistants. — J. P. von Froschauer, to the Medical Clinic. 

Josef Stengel, to the Surgical Clinic. 

, * Since retired and pensioned. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTE AT VIENNA, AUSTRIA. 287 

Franz Wildner, on Descriptive and Pathological Zootomy. 

Over- Veterinarian F. Schiiller, Teacher of Horseshoeing. 

Inspecting Veterinarians. — Ferdinand Wicher, for the Hospitals. 

Anton Janich, for Horseshoeing. 

Accountants. — Franz Miihln, Superior. 

Heinrich Lazlo, Assistant. 

Other Persons. — One gardener, two official servants, one porter, 
three saloon-servants, one apothecary's servant, one watchman, two 
drivers, three smiths in forge, three corporals, and forty-one soldiers 
as servants in the stables. 

The ground of the school covers a territory of 42,514 square 
metres. It is plentifully supplied with fresh water. The stables 
contain room for eighty horses, besides twenty-two boxes, with grain 
magazines, rooms, and all necessary appurtenances. There is also a 
stable for fourteen cattle, and the dog-hospital is fitted up with 
cages for forty-four dogs. There is also a quarantine-stable for the 
isolation of suspected or diseased animals, with five boxes. The 
school has a fine botanical garden, lecture-room, laboratories, muse- 
ums, forge, grazing-ground, and everything necessary to such an in- 
stitution. The number of works in the library is 4,132, or 9,630 
volumes, six to seven hundred florins being allowed for its repletion 
each year. The books are all arranged, according to the subjects 
treated, upon appropriate shelves. 

At the end of the year 1876 the anatomical museum contained : 

Stuffed mammalia and monstrosities 160 specimens. 

" birds 59 " 

Skeletons : Mammalia 190 " 

Birds 62 " 

Amphibia and reptiles 10 " 

Fishes 9 " 

Individual bony specimens 366 " 

Teeth 428 " 

Ligaments, cartilage, and muscfe preparations 95 " 

Intestines 156 " 

Nerves 27 " 

Blood-vessels 160 " 

Lymphatics 8 " 

Monstrosities in spirit 110 " 

Embryos 129 " 

Varia 115 " 

Total 2,084 " 

The pathological museum contains 2,762 specimens. The col- 



288 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

lection of surgical instruments is very complete, 224 new ones being 
added to it in the last twenty years. 

The collection of herbs, minerals, etc., used in medicine, and all 
other appurtenances of a school of like nature, are kept full and in 
perfect order. 

During the years between 1823 and 1877, 100,558 animals (of 
these 87,436 recovered, 8,787 died, and 4,281 were killed), with the 
exception of dogs, were treated at the school, being 1,845 for each 
year. 

From 1857 to 1877, 20,241 dogs were treated in the dog-hos- 
pital, of which 14,023 recovered, 4,725 died, and 1,463 were killed. 

The Students. — The students belong either to the civil or mili- 
tary professions. The first are either students of veterinary medi- 
cine jper se, or of horseshoeing. Neither the Minister of War nor 
his representative, the military supervisor, exercises any control over 
them, they being subjected to the control of the directors, and all 
regulations concerning them emanate from the " cultus " minister. 
The conditions for admittance are : 

1. At the military veterinary school the students are educated 
in the entire principles of veterinary medicine. 

2. Whoever intends to become a student must subject himself 
to a matriculatory examination. This examination is not required 
of students that are graduates of the sixth class in a " gymnasial " 
or " real " school. 

(The matriculatory examination is limited to the following sub- 
jects : German language, physics, chemistry, natural history, geog- 
raphy, history, and algebra.) 

In the German language the student must write an essay in 
good, clear orthography and good grammar, upon a subject of nat- 
ural history. 

Physics. — He must explain and demonstrate upon instruments 
the ordinary phenomena. 

Chemistry. — The elements of inorganic and organic chemistry, 
with simple tests. 

Natural History. — General knowledge of the classification of 
the three kingdoms. 

Geography. — Physical geography in general, and the climatical 
and geographical conditions of all parts of the world, and a special 
knowledge of Central Europe, and Austria in particular. 

History. — A knowledge of the chief historical events of the 
world at large, and Austria in special. 

Algebra. — Elementary. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTE AT VIENNA, AUSTRIA. 289 

This examination takes place in the first week of October of 
each year by a special commission named by the " cultus " minister, 
three members being professors of the school, and one each repre- 
senting a gymnasium and real school. The examination costs five 
guldens, and goes to the examiners. Students must not be over 
twenty-six or under eighteen years of age ; consideration is some- 
times taken in case of students whose studies have been uninten- 
tionally interrupted in a scientific or agricultural academy. The 
course extends over three years, of two sessions each, as follows : 

First Year {First Session). — Introduction to the study of veter- 
inary medicine for two weeks, three hours each week ; zootomy of 
all domestic animals, weekly, five hours ; general chemistry, weekly, 
three hours ; breeding, weekly, three hours ; theoretic horseshoe- 
ing, weekly, two hours ; dissection and practical horseshoeing, ar- 
ranged in the hours not taken up by other branches. 

(Second Session.) — Topographical zootomy, weekly, five hours ; 
organic chemistry, with especial reference to physiological and 
pathological chemistry, weekly, three hours ; breeding, five hours ; 
medicinal botany, weekly, two hours ; dissection and practical horse- 
shoeing, as before. 

Second Year (Third Sessio?i). — General pathology and patho- 
logical anatomy, weekly, three hours ; physiology with microscop- 
ical practice, weekly, two hours ; pharmacognosy, materia medica, 
and art of writing prescriptions, weekly, three hours ; clinic, daily ; 
dissection, and the preparation of two anatomical subjects, in hours 
to be fixed at convenience ; autopsies ; practical horseshoeing. 

(Fourth Session.) — Pathological zootomy, weekly, three hours ; 
physiology, with microscopical practice, weekly, two hours ; ob- 
stetrics, weekly, two hours ; theoretic use of instruments and band- 
ages, weekly, two hours ; clinic, daily ; autopsies ; practice in chem- 
ical laboratory ; horseshoeing. 

Third Year (Fifth Session). — Medical and surgical clinic, daily ; 
special pathology and therapeutics, weekly, three hours ; veterinary 
surgery, weekly, two hours ; practice in operative surgery, weekly, 
three hours ; exercise in making reports of forensic cases and in 
reference to veterinary police ; animal pests and veterinary police, 
weekly, three hours ; cattle and meat inspection, weekly, one hour ; 
horseshoeing. 

(Sixth Session.) — Clinics, and other branches as before ; history 
of veterinary medicine, weekly, one hour ; horseshoeing. 

The school also has a special course of two years for medical men 
and wound-doctors. 

19 



290 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

The Examinations.— -The examination takes place at the end of 
each year in the subjects which have been lectured upon or demon- 
strated. The results are designated as " excellent " (" sehr gut " *), 
" good," and " middling." Students who have received the last 
censor may apply for a second examination, but those who have re- 
ceived it in two or more branches are obliged to repeat the full 
course for the completed year. 

The professors are free to make examinations on any subjects 
during the session. 

Students who desire the state diploma as veterinarians must, 
among other things, make an autopsy and correctly dictate the re- 
sults ; also prepare certain anatomical specimens, and give in to the 
appropriate professor certain written documents upon cases in con- 
nection with forensic medicine and veterinary police. 

Aside from this, the final examination consists in the student 
attending a selected patient (a tough case selected by the teacher) in 
both the internal and surgical clinic for three days, of which the 
student has to make, unaided, the diagnosis, and attend to and direct 
the treatment, and write a full description of the case, its history, 
treatment, and prognosis. Further, he must make several surgical 
operations upon a living animal, and demonstrate a subject in anatomy. 

The partial examinations take place under the special professor 
in each branch, with changes of professors, the last examination in 
the presence of the whole examining body. All members of the 
examining commissions are free to ask of the candidate any ques- 
tions they please in connection with veterinary medicine or its col- 
lateral branches. The examining commission consists of the pro- 
fessors and a person named by the Minister of the Interior. If a 
candidate has failed in one part of his examination, he may again 
present himself at a time fixed by the commission, which can never 
be in less than three months. If he has failed in two divisions of the 
examination, he must be examined again in all parts of his studies, but 
never in less than six months. The final examination costs fifty-four 
florins. Foreigners are admitted by the consent of the direction, and 
have a right to an examination for a diploma, out not to practice in 
Austria when not naturalized citizens. Foreigners have to pay 
twenty guldens fee for each session before it begins. Single courses 
of lectures may be arranged with the director. Certain rules of 
conduct must be observed. 

* The German " sehr gut " is not correctly interpreted by the English " very good" 
it being spoken with a peculiar emphasis, and used only in a sense of the English " ex- 
cellent." 



VETERINARY SCHOOLS OF BELGIUM, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, ETC. 291 

Some fifteen years ago the school at Yienna enjoyed a very high 
reputation in Europe. Briickmuller was then a first-class authority. 
Roell had made himself famous by his clinical ability, especially 
with reference to pulmonary disease, and is accredited with being 
the first to systematically introduce auscultation and percussion of 
the chest into veterinary practice ; but all things must fade : the pro- 
fessors have grown old and lost some of their youthful energy, and at 
present their places have not been filled by " young blood," so that 
this once famous school is in a sort of semi-torpid condition. Nearly 
all schools of medicine and science have to undergo these changes, so 
that we may be sure that the Yienna school will ere loDg assume its 
old rank among the bright sisterhood of European veterinary in- 
stitutes. 

Short Notices of the Yeterinary Schools at Brussels, Bel- 
gium, and those of Russia, Sweden, and Norway. 

The small kingdom of Belgium was by no means to be outdone 
by her larger sisters, and ranks high among the Continental nations 
in reference to its veterinary institutions. The Royal Yeterinary 
School was instituted in 1832, but not organized until 1835, and is 
situated in the environs of Brussels ; one of the streets bounding 
it on one side is named after Brogniez, one of its most distin- 
guished professors, who added many valuable instruments to the 
veterinary cabinet. Among other noted professors who have been 
attached to this school we find the names of Thiernesse, "Wehenkel, 
and Dupont ; and, among the practitioners, Willems, the introducer 
of inoculation as a prophylactic against pleuro-pneumonia in cattle. 
The Brussels school is modeled after those of Erance ; the fee for the 
regular students (eleves internes) is fixed at 700 francs per year. 
The preliminary education demanded of students is higher than in 
France, the consent of the minister being necessary to their admit- 
tance. Many young men study the natural sciences at this school, 
who intend studying medicine at the university, thereby enjoying 
the advantages of the " internat." The number of teachers is larger 
than at the French schools, there being eight professors and four 
assistants. The number of lectures is also greater. There are two 
examinations — one at the end of the first two years, and the other at 
the completion of the course, which extends over four years. The 
hospital has room for about thirty horses, each one paying a fee of 
two francs daily. The school has a visiting clinic, but no school 
conveyance, the visits being made, however, at the expense of the in- 
stitution. Three horses are weekly used for anatomical and opera- 



292 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETEKINARY SCHOOLS. 

tive practice by the students, and one for the anatomical teacher ; 
they cost some eighty francs each ; about eighty animals are used 
in this way each year. The anatomical museum is very rich in 
specimens, and they are better arranged than at Alfort. 

The four-year course is arranged as follows : 

First Session. — Anatomy, dissection, physics, botany. 

Second Session. — Botany, physics, repetition in anatomy, and 
the two former subjects. 

Third Session. — Anatomy, dissection, physics, chemistry, with 
reviewings upon the two latter. 

Fourth Session. — Anatomy of the domestic animals aside from 
the horse ; physics, histology, chemistry, horseshoeing. 

Fifth Session. — Clinic, pharmacy, general and special pathology, 
anatomy, operative surgery, therapeutics and materia medica ; the- 
ory and practice of horseshoeing. 

Sixth Session. — Clinic, general and special pathology, anatomy, 
pathological anatomy, therapeutics and materia medica, pharmacy, 
with practice, operative surgery, horseshoeing. 

Seventh Session. — Clinic, surgical pathology, horseshoeing, breed- 
ing, topographic anatomy, operative surgery (theoretical and practi- 
cal), pharmaceutical practice, forensic medicine, and sanitary po- 
lice. 

Eighth Session. — Clinic, surgical pathology, breeding, obstetrics, 
meat-inspection, pharmacy, horseshoeing. Numerous repetitions or 
reviewings of each branch of study take place during each session. 

The regulations for the control of the Government veterinary 
officials are about as follows — I say "about," for they are taken 
from the law of 1851, and some changes may have since been 
made : 

Article 1. According to the requirements, there shall be one 
or more Government veterinarians in each agricultural district. 

These veterinarians are named by the Minister of the Interior, 
on the proposal of the permanent deputation of the provincial coun- 
cil, and the agricultural commission ; the minister fixes their residence, 
and the territory over which they shall exert control. 

Aet. 2. The Government veterinarians are generally selected 
from among those who have passed an especially satisfactory exami- 
nation at the school. 

Aet. 3. Each appointment is at first made provisory for a 
period of three years, and only at the end of this term can the ap- 
pointment become permanent. . 

Aet. 4. In those districts where the rewards of practice are in- 



VETEEINAEY SCHOOLS OF BELGIUM, EUSSIA, SWEDEN, ETC. 293 

sufficient, the minister may allow the veterinary official a support 
which shall not exceed three hundred francs yearly, in addition to 
that allowed by the local authorities. 

Art. 5. The duties of the Government veterinarians are : 1. To 
exert a careful supervision of the hygienic conditions of the animals 
in their district. 2. To watch over the healthy condition of the stal- 
lions used for breeding, and to see that they are adapted to the pro- 
vincial regulations for the improvement of stock. 3. They must 
carefully investigate all animals in their district with reference to 
contagious or infectious diseases. 4. At the requisition of the gov- 
ernor of their province, they must visit public markets and fairs and 
watch over the health of the animals. 

Art. 6. Such veterinarians as are members of the provincial 
agricultural commission control, when required by the governor or 
said commission, the official duties of the other Government veteri- 
narians of the province. 

Art. 7. It is their duty to notify the commissioner of the " ar- 
rondissements," and the members of the agricultural commission, of 
the presence of contagio-infectious diseases in their province. The 
governor of the province receives his notification from the above- 
named officials. In important cases the Minister of the Interior is 
also to be notified by the General Inspector of Hygiene, who is 
notified directly by the veterinary official. 

Art. 8. The Government veterinarians are also obliged to ob- 
serve the conditions of agriculture in their respective districts, so far 
as their other duties will permit of, and to make reports to the Min- 
ister of the Interior. 

. Art. 9. These officials must make official returns within the 
first ten days of each quarter to the governor of the province, with 
reference to each case of an infectious or contagious animal disease 
that has taken place during the past quarter in their district, and 
also with reference to all other facts which are of importance to the 
Government. These reports are collected by the Provincial Agri- 
cultural Commission, and sent by them to the governor, who in his 
turn sends them to the minister. The General Inspector of Public 
Hygiene must return a yearly report of all cases of contagious ani- 
mal diseases which have occurred in the kingdom. 

Art. 10. The Government veterinarians have exclusively the 
control of the infectious animal diseases, and must always be called 
upon to make such examination by the higher officers of the Gov- 
ernment. 

Art. 13. Such officials can only order the peremptory killing of 



294 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

an animal when it is affected to an incurable (?) degree with the 
following diseases : 

Horses. — Glanders. 

Cattle. — Anthrax, rinderpest, and pleuro-pneumonia. 

Sheep. — Variola, and in all animals when complicated with rabies. 

The rank and advancement of veterinarians in the Belgian army 
are as follow : 

The veterinary inspectors rank as major; the first-class veteri- 
narians as captain; the second-class veterinarians as first lieuten- 
ant ; the third-class veterinarians as second lieutenant. 

In order to become a third-class veterinarian, the applicant must 
have graduated well for a civil veterinarian ; must be twenty-four 
years of age, and a citizen, or naturalized. ~No one can become 
second class without having served creditably in the third for at 
least two years. To become first class, he must have served in the 
second for at least two years to the same degree. As inspectors, 
three years' first-class service is necessary. To be first or second 
class, the applicant must also stand a practical examination. The 
inspectors are appointed by the king. Veterinarians of all grades 
receive, after ten years' active service, one fifth more pension than 
army officers having a corresponding rank. 

Russia* 

"We are somewhat inclined to look upon the Eussians as a sort of 
half -civilized people, but the reverse is much more near to the truth, 
at least so far as it has reference to the support given by the Govern- 
ment to the advancement of science. In no way is this more true 
than in relation to veterinary science, the need of which made itself 
apparent very early in this century, on account of the wealth of the 
nation in domestic animals, especially cattle, horses, and sheep. As 
should be known to every one, rinderpest, the most terrible and 
devastating of all animal plagues, makes its home upon the steppes 
of Southern Russia, causing yearly a loss of thousands of cattle, and 
frequently extending its ravages to neighboring countries. In 1877 
the official returns of the losses caused by rinderpest are given as 
217,768 cattle and 1,884 sheep; and the same authority gives as the 
number of cattle in the empire, 25,918,600 : the loss from this cause 
amounting, therefore, to 0'82 per cent. 

Russia has three veterinary institutes, one each at Kharkov, Dor- 
pat, and Kazan, all supported and regulated by the Government ; the 
degrees given are doctor and magistrate of veterinary science. The 

* Miiller, " Russische Veterinar Institut Magazin," vol. xxx. 



VETERINARY SCHOOLS OF BELGIUM, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, ETC. 295 

regulations for these schools suffered a complete reorganization soon 
after the veterinary congress at Frankfort in the year 1872, the aim 
of the Government being to make them second to none in Europe 
from a truly scientific point of view. The new regulations bear 
date May 8, 1873. The schools are subjected to the control of the 
cultus minister in the first place, and directly under the curator of 
the educational district in which they are situated. The immediate 
direction, however, consists of the director and council of the 
school. At each institute there are three regular, one extra profess- 
or, four docents ; of the last, one for pharmacy, one for agriculture, 
one prosector who is also a docent, and an extra prosector and a 
teacher of horseshoeing, with various assistant teachers. The direct- 
or receives, aside from a free residence, 3,300 silver rubles yearly ; 
the regular professors, 3,000 ; the extra, 2,000 ; the docents and pro- 
sectors, 1,200 ; the assistants, 700 ; and the teacher of horseshoeing 
the same, with residence. The director, professors, docents, and 
prosectors must all have the qualification of a magistrate of veteri- 
nary science. The docents of pharmacy and agriculture must like- 
wise be of the same grade in their respective branches, but the 
teacher of horseshoeing may have only the ordinary veterinary 
diploma. Private docents are also permitted to lecture upon any 
branch of veterinary science which they may select. To these last the 
qualification of doctor of veterinary medicine is necessary, but each 
aspirant must write an essay upon a selected subject, which must be 
publicly defended, and also stand two test-examinations upon themes 
selected by the council of the institute. The private docents have 
no certain pay, but the same is regulated by the council, and they 
have before them the privilege of adding to their education by study 
in foreign countries at the Government's expense. The natural 
sciences — mineralogy, botany, zoology, comparative anatomy (not zo- 
otomy), physics, physical geography, and chemistry — are taught at 
the schools by special professors, appointed for the purpose from 
the university. The students also receive lectures upon religion on 
appointed days. A high grade of preliminary education is demand- 
ed of the students. The course is extended over four years. Three 
thousand silver rubles are at the disposal of the council for each 
school, as stipends for desirable students. The general censors are 
excellent and satisfactory, which give the student the diploma of 
doctor, but in case of extraordinary ability the council may give the 
diploma of magistrate of veterinary medicine. A foreigner may 
also obtain them by standing the same examination. The director 
also possesses the grade and rights of a dean of a university, while 



296 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

the professors, docents, and prosectors rank with those of the uni- 
versities. The teachers are appointed by the council from can- 
didates who have distinguished themselves in scientific research, but 
must also demonstrate that they have the gifts necessary to becom- 
ing proficient teachers. The allowance for each veterinary institute, 
to pay the teachers, and other educational expenses, is yearly 35, TOO 
silver rubles. To each institute is added a school for veterinary 
assistants, the course being three years, and is limited to practical in- 
struction by the teacher of horseshoeing, two clinical assistants, a 
pharmaceutical assistant, and special teachers appointed for the pur- 
pose. 

Organization of the Royal Veterinary College at Copenhagen, 

Denmark.* 

The Royal Danish Veterinary School was founded in 1773 by 
the talented veterinarian Alildgaard ; it was again reorganized in 
1858, and changed to a royal veterinary and agricultural high 
school, and removed to the suburbs of Copenhagen. By this ar- 
rangement, veterinary instruction can be directly carried out at one 
school, and in it are also taught agriculturists, surveyors, gardeners, 
and foresters, though the education of the latter is chiefly theo- 
retical. Owing to the number of departments or sections in the 
school, there is a better opportunity for more classes, and par- 
ticularly for special instruction of each class in its own branch of 
study. 

This school is under the control of the Minister of the Interior, 
and is presided over by a director, who does not teach, but who is a 
member of the Privy Council. The present director is Dr. C. E. 
Fenger. An agriculturist is also connected with the school as as- 
sociate director. 

The number of teachers is eighteen, ten of whom are appointed 
by the Government for duty only in the school ; the other eight 
belong, more or less, to the university, the polytechnic, and other 
schools. The assistants are in addition engaged in teaching the 
various sections, and there is also a pharmaceutist in the dispensary. 
The following are the branches taught the veterinary student : 

Anatomy, including dissection and physiology, by Dr. Bendz. 

Internal pathology and clinical instruction, by Professor Bagge. 

Chemistry and pharmacy, by Professor Barfaed. 

Exterior zootechny, hygiene, and theoretic farriery, by Professor 
Prosch. 

* " Veterinary Journal," ii, p. 123. 



VETERINARY SCIIOOLS OF BELGIUM, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, ETC. 297 

Operative surgery, obstetrics, and surgical clinics, by Professor 
Stoekfleth. 

Botany, by Professor Langs. 

Physics and meteorology, by Assistant Fjord. 

Zoology, by Professor Schiodte. 

Veterinary jurisprudence, by Assistant Bay. 

Practical farriery, by Assistant Green. 

The average number of students attending the school since 1858 
has been yearly about two hundred and fifty, being mostly veterina- 
ry and agricultural students. The students must provide their own 
maintenance and lodging. A free education and scholarship can be 
obtained if the student enters his name ; moreover, it is necessary 
that he has received a certain specified general education, which is 
considerably less than is required for matriculation at the univer- 
sity. Latin is not required. 

The scholastic year commences on the 23d of August, the annual 
period of instruction consisting of two sessions of six months each. 
Although the student is at liberty in the matter of attending lect- 
ures, yet the instruction is so arranged that these may occupy a pe- 
riod of six sessions ; as a rule, the period of study is four years 
if the following plan is pursued : 

First Session. — Physics and meteorology, six hours per week ; 
inorganic chemistry, four hours ditto ; zoology, four to six hours 
ditto ; shoeing practice, twelve hours ditto. 

Second Session. — Physics and meteorology, two to three hours 
per week for the first two months ; organic chemistry, three to four 
hours ; botany, two to five hours ; anatomy and physiology, five 
hours ; zootechny, five hours ; practical botany, one hour ; practical 
farriery, twelve hours ; practical grooming, twelve hours a week for 
a month ; clinic, twelve hours per week. 

Third Session. — Botany, seven hours per week for a month ; 
anatomy and physiology, five hours per week ; zootechny, four 
hours ; theoretic farriery, two hours ; pharmacy and pharmacology, 
two hours ; pathology and therapeutics, three to four hours ; sur- 
gery, three to four hours ; veterinary jurisprudence, two hours ; 
practical botany, one hour per week for a month ; practical farriery, 
eight hours per week ; dissection, exterior, one hour ; clinic, twelve 
hours ; practical pharmacy, twelve hours. 

Fourth Session. — Anatomy and physiology, five hours weekly ; 
zootechny, five hours ; pathology and therapeutics, three to four 
hours ; surgery and obstetrics, three to four hours ; veterinary juris- 
prudence, two hours ; dissection, operative surgery, four hours ; 



298 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

practical farriery, eight hours ; clinic, twelve hours ; practical phar- 
macy, twelve hours. 

Fifth Session. — Pathology and therapeutics, three to four hours 
weekly ; surgery, three to four hours ; dissection, operative surgery, 
four hours; practical farriery, eight hours; clinic and pharmacy, 
twelve hours each weekly. 

Sixth Session. — Ambulatory or visiting clinic ; veterinary juris- 
prudence. 

The veterinary examinations take place in April and October, 
and are divided into two parts : the first of these is in pure natural 
science only ; the second, in the other branches of veterinary medi- 
cine. 

Veterinary Medicine in Sweden.* 

The first veterinary school in Sweden was founded by Hern- 
quist, born in 1726. After passing his examination as a doctor in 
philosophy at the University of Upsala, Hernquist went in 1763 to 
France, and, more especially at Lyons, studied veterinary medicine. 
In 1774 he established the veterinary school of Skara, Sweden, and 
was designated professor of it in 1778, remaining in it until his 
death, 1808. He was a writer and practitioner of very high order. 
One of the best of his pupils, Norling, took his place in 1814 ; and 
in 1820, by order of the Swedish Government, he organized the 
veterinary school at Stockholm, remaining director of it, as well as 
that of Skara, until his death in 1855. The Skara school served as 
a preparatory one for that of Stockholm, where the student, after 
a stay of two or three years, underwent the examination for the de- 
gree of veterinary surgeon. At that time, as now, the students 
came from Sweden, Norway, and Finland, and during this period 
a great number of men belonging to each of these countries gradu- 
ated at the Stockholm school. 

In 1867 it was fixed by royal ordinance that before a student 
could enter that college he must have obtained the diploma of 
graduate in letters from the university. This excellent measure for 
the elevation of veterinary instruction was due to the initiative of 
Professor Landberg ; and, instead of diminishing the number of 
students, as some had predicted, it led to an increase. In requiring 
from candidates for admission to this school an amount of prepara- 
tory knowledge not demanded by any other veterinary school in 
Europe, the Swedish Government has taken care to protect the 
interests of its graduates and increase their income; the conse- 
quence is, that the number of graduates has correspondingly aug- 

* "Veterinary Journal," vol. ix, p. 266, \%1§. 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 299 

merited in quantity and quality. The candidate, twenty or twenty- 
one years of age, being a graduate in letters, is received into the 
veterinary school, and there he has to study for four or even six 
years. 

The school has four professors, each with an annual salary of 
about £230; a lecturer, with a salary of £168 ; an assistant, or ad- 
junct, and a teacher of farriery. Two of the professors, the assist- 
ant, and the instructor in farriery, reside at the college ; the others 
have a yearly lodging allowance of £28. The course of teaching 
at present is as follows : 

Anatomy, physiology, zoology, and pathological anatomy — Pro- 
fessor Kinnberg. 

Zootechny, sanitary science and police, and the ambulatory 
clinic — Professor Morell. 

Surgery, obstetrics, farriery, and clinical surgery — Professor 
Sjostedt. 

Pathology, therapeutics, epizootics, pharmaco-dynamics, pharma- 
cotechny, and special clinic — Professor Lindquist. 

Botany, physics, chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmacy — Lec- 
turer Ericsson. 

The assistant aids in the clinic, and the other official instructs in 
the farriery. 

In Sweden there are thirty Government veterinary surgeons, 
who receive an annual allowance of £80 and traveling expenses. 
The regiments in garrison have a regimental veterinary surgeon, 
with a yearly pay of £170 ; and a battalion veterinary surgeon with 
the rank of sub-lieutenant, who receives annually £112. Regiments 
of the line have regimental and squadron veterinary surgeons, hav- 
ing the grade of non-commissioned officers, and a pay of £56 yearly. 
The number of civil and military veterinary surgeons under the 
Government is 170, and all, so far as their technical duties are con- 
cerned, are under the direction of the medical authorities. 

The Schools of Germany. 

The School at Stuttgart.* 

This school was the last established among the German schools. 
It was built on territory which had previously been occupied by the 
Zoological Garden, the royal order for its establishment being dated 
August 21, 1796. Walz, Hordt, and Haussmann were prominent 

* " Die Koniglich. Wiirtemberg. Thierarznei-Schule." Historically considered by He- 
ring. 1847. Rueff, 1871. 



300 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

among the veterinarians of the state at this time, and were called 
upon to advise and take part in it. The former was by far the most 
influential of the trio. He was born in Stuttgart, the 7th of De- 
cember, 1771, and died there, February 4, 1834. He received his 
first education in the gymnasium of his native city, and then in the 
Karls School of Philosophy, where he studied natural philosophy 
and the general principles of medicine, at the same time acquaint- 
ing himself with pharmacy in the shop of his father. Having se- 
lected veterinary medicine as his means of livelihood, he went to 
Vienna, for a time enjoying the teachings of Wolstein ; then visited 
the breeding establishments in Austria and Hungary ; thence his 
travels brought him to Dresden, where he tarried at the Yeterinary 
School for a while ; then visiting the Universities of Jena, Erfurt, 
Leipsic, and Halle, and finally at Berlin, where he remained for 
nine months at the School of Yeterinary Medicine. The reputation 
which the school at Copenhagen acquired under Abildgaard drew 
him to Denmark ; at the same time he studied medicine in the 
hospital of the city under Bang and Winslow. After three years' 
absence he returned to Stuttgart by way of Hoya, Hanover, and 
Gottingen, and on the 9th of September, 1794, received the po- 
sition of an official veterinarian, having the supervision of the en- 
tire veterinary system of the dukedom. He soon became a member 
of the sanitary commission, and of many scientific and public associa- 
tions. Walz was one of the first who asserted that the cheapest and 
best way to stamp out the rinderpest was to kill all diseased animals, 
as well as those exposed to infection. The invasion began in 1795, 
but so many difficulties presented themselves to the proper execu- 
tion of these principles that it was not until 1801 that the pest was 
finally got rid of, at a cost of some 40,000 cattle. His treatment of 
the scabies of sheep has become one of the fundamental elements of 
the veterinary practice. He took a most active part in advocating 
a governmental veterinary school, his efforts being finally rewarded 
by success ; his life was eminently successful, and he died respected 
by all and mourned by many. 

The conditions of admittance to the school were at first very 
easy, requiring applicants to be — 

1. Twenty years old. 

2. A healthy physique, with sufficient strength. 

3. Free from military duty. 

4. The necessary educational qualifications. 

5. Of good moral character. 

6. Must know some trade. 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 301 

7. Must have means enough to pay the expenses of their educa- 
tion. 

The school supplies sleeping apartments for quite a number of 
students, and residence for a number of the teachers. It is fitted up 
with the auxiliaries to instruction, the same as other schools, but the 
collections of skeletons and specimens in the anatomical department 
are wonderfully large for so small an institute. The course of study 
was at first fixed at one year, many students, however, remaining 
over one, two, or even three sessions, themselves seeing the necessity 
of a more complete education. In this regard, it may be well re- 
marked that the first year in any medical school can do nothing 
more than introduce a student to his work ; and if, at the end of a 
four-years' course, he has progressed so far as to get a general view 
of the field before him, and has himself really learned how to study, 
how to select the chaff from the wheat, he may consider himself as 
among the few who enter in at the strait gate which leadeth unto 
knowledge. All this talk about " completing an education," or " he 
has a complete education," with reference to graduates from schools, 
simply shows the ignorance of the speaker ; for, as I have pre- 
viously said, it is only the Virchows, the Franklins, the Darwins, 
and Hallers among men who get so far as to obtain firm hold of 
the keys which are to unlock to them the treasury of knowledge 
in the future, but not without untiring work and unceasing self-sac- 
rifice, however. The rest never even get hold of the keys ; they are 
and always remain pettifoggers, dabblers, or mere routiners and fol- 
lowers in the path of the true lights which lead on to the perfect 
day. 

The example of the students finally led to an increase of the 
term of study to two years, after a lapse of twenty-five years from 
the opening of the school. 

The school had at first four professors (a vast improvement 
over that at Hanover, which at first had but one, and for a long 
time but two) and a teacher of horseshoeing. The course begins 
every year on the 16th of October and ends the 31st of August the 
following year. Vacations come at Christmas and Easter, but such 
a number of students must always remain at the school as is requi- 
site to attend to the patients in the hospital. The library contains 
2,128 books, and is open to the students under certain regulations, 
which are very easy to comply with : " They can keep a book out 
for four weeks at a time, and are allowed all books except such as 
are very rare or costly, which can only be used in the rooms of 
the library." 



302 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

Patients treated oy the Students from 1821 to 1871. 
Horses : 

In the school hospital 18,091 

Visited by students outside the school 5,896 

Used for anatomy and operative practice 684 

Asses and mules 45 

24,716 

Dogs : 

In school hospital 5,270 

Brought in by police 755 

6,025 

Cattle : 

In school 270 

Outside 16,794 

17,064 

Other animals 2,652 

Autopsies 2,722 

Whole number of animals treated in school for fifty years. . . 53,179 

Whole number of students in same period, 2,140. Of these, the 
following are recorded as having emigrated to America : 

L. Bickard, 1841-'42; Alois Ebach, 1865-'67; Will. Eberhardt, 
1838-'39 ; J. F. Erpf, 1831-'32 ; A. Fritz, 1841-'42 ; B. Fusseneg- 
ger, 1844-'45 ; Aug. Gleich, studied winter of 1860 ; J. Haussler, 
1840; G. Halm, 1842; L. D. Hess, 1824; Chr. Horz, 1849-'50; 
A. Ibach, 1866-'68 ; G. F. Liitze, J. E. Mack, 1864-'65 ; J. Sitters, 
C. Shock, J. J. Schwarz, J. Stiefel, Chr. Troscher, C. E. Wolff. 

The school at Stuttgart is, I hope, soon to be among the " have 
beens." At one time it enjoyed quite an exalted reputation, but 
since the retirement of Dr. Hering, Sr., it has steadily been going 
into decline, and the students becoming fewer and fewer. This 
is in part owing to a very injurious stand adhered to by some of its 
teachers, and which was once quite general in Germany, viz., that 
a school should give two different forms of education, and graduate 
first and second class veterinarians — the first for the use of the state, 
the latter for the people. The nonsense of such an idea should be 
apparent to any one, but to no one so quickly as to a veterinarian. 
Of one hundred students graduating from a given class and a given 
school, and enjoying instruction uniting to the fullest possible de- 
gree a scientific foundation and practical execution, not all will be 
successful practitioners, and but few suitable for state work, and 
still fewer for the highest state work — perhaps one of the hundred 
may make a really gifted and capable teacher. Let the education be 
as perfect as possible : the world's test will do the winnowing. 

It will not do to leave even this brief notice of this school with- 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 303 

out duly noticing the man who did more to give it fame than, 
in all probability, all the others combined who have taught within 
its walls. About the thirtieth year of this century really marks the 
birth of the scientific tendency in veterinary medicine. At this 
time Germany was far beyond any other country in the quality of 
the work she was giving to the world, so far as veterinary medicine 
was concerned. Gurlt, Haubner, Hertwig, and Hering were the 
four, among others, who took part in this work. Of these four, 
Eduard Hering was by no means the least. He was born in Stutt- 
gart on the 20th of March, 1799. Dying recently, he enjoyed the 
well-merited fruits of his years of labor, as pensioner of his Govern- 
ment, but a free man, nevertheless, for the services of such men are 
not to be counted by a few dollars paid yearly in supporting them 
in comfort in their old age. It is impossible for me to give even a 
brief account of the literary work of this man. It covers three 
finely printed pages in the historical sketch I am now using. He 
was the best historian living on veterinary literature, and in this re- 
spect may be ranked with Schrader, Huzard, and Ercolani, the four 
being the only men who have been especially noted in this regard. 
He also edited the "Repertorium der Thierheilkunde," 1840 to 
date, a journal in which he endeavored to give to German readers 
a digest of all important matters and articles which came to pass in 
connection with their profession in other lands. His " Special Pa- 
thology and Therapeutics," and his " Book for Horsemen," are still 
well worthy of study ; the latter is beautifully illustrated by the 
celebrated Baumeister, also professor at the school, and is bought 
up so closely as a work of real art that it is impossible to get a copy, 
it being out of print for many years. His work on operative sur- 
gery should be translated into English, it being much more practical 
and condensed than the two-volume verbose and indistinct work 
of Peuch and Toussaint ; a compendium, critically revised, would 
be a grand thing, but deliver us from the original ! But the one 
act which has given Hering the most fame, the one act which 
did more for the elevation of veterinary medicine into a science 
than all the work of all the other professors at the school, the 
one act which has made his name immortal as a discoverer of a 
new fact, was that Hering was the first to experimentally demon- 
strate the velocity of the circulation in the living organism, pub- 
lished in "Tiedemann und Trevirarnus Zeitschrift fur Physiolo- 
gie," Heidelberg, 1828. 



304 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

The School at Hanover* 

On the 15th of April, 1777, the first steps toward the erection of 
a veterinary school were taken into consideration by the king, or 
rather elector, who was at the same time George III of England, 
and Kersting, the superior veterinarian of the court at Cassel, a 
neighboring province, was invited to visit Hanover to advise about 
the opening of the school, and take charge of it. Kersting's popu- 
larity was so great at the court of Cassel that he could not obtain 
permission to leave for Hanover, and was obliged to run away. As 
Kersting was by all means the most important German veterinarian 
of his day, a short sketch of his life is not out of place here : 

" Johann Adam Kersting was the descendant of a Huguenot 
family, and was born at Liebenau, in Lower Hesse, in 1726, and died 
at Hanover, March 2, 1784, from the effects of a wound caused by the 
kick of a horse, at a time when he could ill be spared, being but 
fifty-eight years old, and full of bodily vigor and mental activity. 
His father was a farrier, wound-doctor, and veterinarian. At fifteen 
years of age the son went into the forge of his father at Cassel, 
where he soon displayed unusual abilities. Among others, he be- 
came acquainted with a clock-maker, and took so much interest in 
the work of the latter that he himself constructed a clock and hung 
it up in his father's forge, which so incited the wrath of the latter 
that he knocked it in pieces, declaring he would have no such non- 
sense interfering with the proper work of his son. The son also 
busied himself in studying the diseases of the horse, and practicing 
their treatment ; and we find him, in 1745, as farrier accompanying 
a squadron of Hessians into Scotland in favor of the Stuarts. He 
accompanied the Hessian prince of the day during several wars as 
farrier, and at the close of the Seven Years' War studied medicine 
in Gottingen for a time. During the war in Silesia (1757) he was 
thrown from a baggage-wagon, with such force as to lose both sight 
and hearing, the former not returning for a period of two years. 
During his blindness he attended to the publication of the first edi- 
tion of his book, " Sicherer und wohlerfahrener Huf und Keit- 
schmidt " (" Sure and Well-experienced Farrier and Rider"). Dur- 
ing a winter's quarters at Brunswick he again studied medicine 
diligently. At the end of the war he settled at Cassel, as farrier 
veterinarian to the court, where he busily pursued his studies, espe- 

* These remarks are taken from " Die konigliche Thierarznei-Schule zu Hannover," 
during the first hundred years of its existence, by K. Giinther, director and professor, to 
which the reader is referred for all minute details. 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 305 

cially of anatomy, and soon acquired a reputation which extended 
into neighboring provinces. That he acquired no inconsiderable 
skill in anatomical dissection may be divined from the fact that he 
discovered and very minutely described the membrane of Decemet 
in the horse, on the inner part of the cornea, and communicated the 
same to Haller in a letter which is among the collections at the Han- 
over school. He soon received students from the adjoining prov- 
inces, other governments sending young men to study under his 
guidance at their expense. It was but natural that, on opening the 
discussion for the erection of a veterinary school at Hanover, the 
attention of the Government should be directed to him as the man 
best fitted to successfully conduct the venture. Kersting' s sudden 
departure for Hanover, against the will of his elector, gave rise to a 
most interesting discussion between the two Governments, that of 
Cassel declaring him to be a deserter, and demanding his return, 
which was not, however, conceded, Kersting declaring himself to 
be no slave but a free man, and in debt to no one. Kersting was 
a man of irreproachable character and lively temperament, an in- 
defatigable worker, sharp and logical thinker, and close observer 
of the phenomena of disease. In this regard, a remark which he 
makes upon glanders is not without public interest, when we con- 
sider how long ago it was made, and how ignorant many people still 
are with reference to this disease, thinking that when no nasal out- 
flow and ulcers are present there is no glanders. Kersting says, after 
giving the usual characteristics of the disease: 'I must concede, 
and it is true, that a glandered horse can present these phenomena, 
but not in the beginning of the disease. For a horse may have 
glanders for a whole year, and, according to circumstances, still 
longer, without its having ulcers in the nose, and at the same time 
have a good appetite, smooth hair, and be in good condition.' " 

Kersting received 300 thalers ($225) pay, a free residence, and 
the title of superior veterinarian to the Hanoverian court. 

Havemann, who had been sent to Alfort, at the expense of and 
by the Government, was appointed as assistant teacher, at the same 
pay. There seems to have been an extreme prejudice existing 
among the people at this time against those persons who had any- 
thing to do with cutting up animals, for the king was obliged to 
issue a royal order, by which any slurs or other ill-treatment of the 
teachers, students, or servants at the school for this cause would be 
punished. The course at the school under Kersting was limited to 
one year, though many of the students remained through two, hear- 
ing the same lectures a second time. It was as follows : 

20 



306 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

"Winter Session. Before noon. — 8 to 9, horseshoeing, daily ; 9 
to 10, instruction upon the internal and external diseases of the 
horse, four days each week ; 10 to 11, clinic. 

Afternoon. — 1 to 2, dissection, daily ; 2 to 3, anatomical lec- 
ture, four days per week. General examination upon all subjects 
twice weekly ; 3 to 4, dissection. 

Summer Session. Before noon. — 8 to 9, horseshoeing, daily ; 9 
to 10, internal and external diseases, daily ; 10 to 11, clinic. 

Afternoon. — 2 to 3, osteology, exterior, physiology, hygiene, 
obstetrics, materia medica, pharmacy, bandaging, etc, one day each 
per week. 

On Kersting's death, the direction of the school passed to Have- 
mann, who had for a time been stationed at one of the royal studs, 
which he left with great regret. He was a man of extreme mod- 
esty, but nevertheless proved himself to be a competent and pleas- 
ant teacher. There was but little change in the course or manner 
of instruction. Havemann was requested to give his views upon 
veterinary education to the Government ; and this man of the last 
century embodies some ideas therein which are not unworthy of ap- 
preciation in this country, which, to-day, in spite of self-conceited 
Americanism, is no further advanced, so far as veterinary science is 
concerned, than Hanover was then : " According to my ideas, vet- 
erinary medicine would receive a much more rapid development if 
the education were made entirely free to the children of the land, as 
there are so few veterinarians to he had. Applicants must not only 
be able to write legibly, but must give reason to hope for their fu- 
ture success by diligence and a natural adaptability to the profession. 
Those who have not these two necessary qualifications must be dis- 
missed the schools, for, while it is an undoubted truth that capable 
veterinarians are of much benefit to the public, so is it beyond all 
doubt that empirics and quacks are nothing else than lashes to the 
land, even though they be supplied with letters of apprenticeship, 
saying that they have studied in a royal veterinary school an art of 
which they have not acquired the least idea." In answer to the 
question, " How long would it take a gifted and industrious man to 
become an educated veterinarian ? " he says, " One learns quicker, 
another slower, but to all are necessary great capability, much work, 
and these all demand time, and three years are none too little." But, 
in spite of all this good advice, the course was not much extended by 
the Government, or the conditions to admittance made much more 
severe. 

Hausemann succeeded Havemann as director in 1819, and had 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 307 

for assistant the veterinarian Frederick Giinther. Little change was 
made in the plan of instruction until 1828, except that the courses 
were made longer. In 1828 Giinther introduced into the curriculum 
forensic medicine and veterinary police, materia medica, and the art 
of writing and making prescriptions, with several other essential im- 
provements. A teacher for horseshoeing was also added to the school. 
The period of study was extended to two and a half years, although 
Giinther worked earnestly to have it three years. In 1847 Giinther 
became director, and with it began a new era in the school. There 
is no doubt that he was one of the most eminently practical men 
that has ever graced the veterinary profession in any country ; per- 
haps it would not be going too far to say that the scientific and 
practical were united in him to a degree which has been but rarely 
met with in the members of our profession. He was an earnest ex- 
perimenter, a close observer, and his greatest failure seems to have 
been too much delay in publishing his results. No better hippo-anat- 
omist has ever lived ; his work on the " Myology of the Horse " has 
never been equaled, and has been a source of assistance to all succeed- 
ing authors. He was the first to discover the chief cause of roaring, 
if not the only one, in atrophy of the laryngeal muscles, upon which 
opening of the glottis depends, especially of the left side, and con- 
nected it by experiment with diseased conditions of the left recur- 
rent nerve. He gave us the first book of any moment upon the 
horse's teeth and their diseases, and invented numerous practical 
(not useless) instruments for their extraction, etc. No one has fol- 
lowed him in this direction, and we remain just where he left us in 
the middle of this century. His work on obstetrics was for a long 
time the best which we had. Through his earnest endeavors and 
untiring energy, the school-term was finally fixed at three years, at 
which it continued until 1877, when with all the German schools it 
was extended to three and a half, and the conditions to admission 
and receiving the diploma of the empire were fixed alike for all. 

Gerlach succeeded Giinther as director, and under him the 
school attained a still greater celebrity, but, as we have to speak of 
him in connection with the school at Berlin, we will defer further 
remark till then. The grounds of the Hanover school are quite 
extensive, the library replete with books and many valuable manu- 
scripts and works of early German and other Continental veterinarians. 
The buildings are many of them new, and all have recently suffered 
renovation. The hospital is roomy, airy, and well lighted ; in fact, 
the school has all the requisites necessary to such an institution of a 
smaller variety, except a special physiologist and physiological 



308 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

laboratory. The above-mentioned historical sketch, from which I 
have taken these few facts, gives a list of all the students, their 
place of birth, time of entrance, and whether they received a diplo- 
ma or not, from the year 1820 to 1877 ; from which we see that 
during that time 1,269 students were recorded upon the books : many 
of these never stood their examination ; among the latter will be 
found, in all probability, quite a number of " graduates of a German 
school " (?) now practicing in this country. 

The present corps of teachers is as follows (1877) : 
Medical Councilors. — K. Guenther, Director ; Professor Bege- 
mann, Professor Dr. Dammaun, Dr. Harms, Dr. Lustig, Dr. Rabe, 
Dr. Brticher, Dr. Eichbaum, Yet. Ernst (assistant). 

The School at Munich. 

Instead of offering an imperfect historical sketch of this institu- 
tion, it seems more conformable with the purposes of this book to 
offer to your consideration a translation of the following address, 
" Upon the Necessity for the Reform of Veterinary Education in Ger- 
many, as proved by the History of the Munich School" by my friend 
Professor Johann Feser, of that institution, delivered August 6, 
1873 ; the more so as there is much contained therein of unquestion- 
able importance to the people of this country, and further, that the 
author is one of the most advanced thinkers as well as accomplished 
scientists in the veterinary profession of our day : 

" The veterinary schools have assumed no less a task than the 
education of completely qualified veterinarians, for their graduates 
have a manifold service to perform to states interested in the 
breeding of domestic animals, which can only be well done by a 
complete scientific and practical education, united to great diligence 
and unceasing activity by the veterinarian himself. 

" The veterinarian must not only be capable of performing the 
practical duties of his profession when called upon by the public, 
but he has much higher duties ; he must at the same time act as 
counselor and protector of the state, and that portion of its citizens 
interested in the breeding and rearing of domestic animals, thereby 
contributing to the nation's welfare by keeping distant and suppress- 
ing those pests which carry death and desolation in their path. 

" The chief task of the veterinarian lies in keeping the domestic 
animals in health, and in exerting a favorable influence toward 
their perfection by aiding, as educated advisers, the progressive de- 
velopment of breeding in the land (to which may well be added, and 
in preventing many diseases of human beings caused by unsuitable 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 309 

animal products which would otherwise he offered for consumption 
as articles of food). The veterinary schools are not, therefore, 
founded for the education of mere curers / they are not instituted 
to send raw empirics into the land, for in such cases the aims of 
veterinary medicine are by no means attained. Such empirics 
were plenty enough long before the foundation of the veterinary 
schools ; and only because of their utter uselessness to the state were 
the veterinary schools founded, in order that veterinarians could be 
had suitable to the higher purposes which the public necessities de- 
manded. 

" In order to prove the correctness of this assertion, it is neces- 
sary to refer to the history of the veterinary schools. "We must know 
why these schools were really founded, what necessity they were 
expected to fill, and how observing men thought this end was 
best to be attained. 

" To this purpose nothing serves better than the address deliv- 
ered by Cothenius, body-surgeon to Frederick the Great of Prussia, 
before the Academy of Sciences on the 21st of January, 1768, be- 
fore there was any veterinary school in Germany. Cothenius first 
demonstrated from the records of history that in antiquity, and fol- 
lowing down to his time, devastating animal plagues had always ex- 
isted, which produced immense misery to the people, and concluded 
with the advice that only veterinary schools had the power to give 
the means of freeing the nation from these plagues ; but he placed 
great emphasis upon the necessity of an exact fundamental educa- 
tion, giving a plan for their establishment which is well worthy 
our present consideration, though elucidated over one hundred 
years since. He knew very well that at that time there was no thor- 
ough plan of education, no veterinary science, and no teachers, and 
that for the last purpose men of great ability were necessary, for 
they were to teach subjects of which they knew nothing, and upon 
which there were no suitable books of reference, or other assist- 
ance. He said : ' The first teachers must not be ashamed to be 
themselves students ; their greatest honor must be the public admis- 
sion of their own ignorance. The less they at present know, and 
the more they feel the necessity of learning, the more have we rea- 
son to hope that they will in time attain to that degree of perfection 
which they so much desire.' Thus we see that Cothenius well ap- 
preciated the only way by which veterinary science was to be suc- 
cessfully developed. He looked upon this task from a purely scien- 
tific stand-point, and well knew that progress was only to be at- 
tained by the methods and assistance of scientific research. To 



310 THE ESTABLISHMENT OE THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

this end he demanded not only macroscopic but microscopic anat- 
omy, a physio-pathologic, therapeutic method of exact investigation, 
and recognized the necessity of a well-ordered chemical labora- 
tory. He laid emphasis upon the necessity of several teachers for 
such schools. lie recommended paying especial attention to the 
study of the animal plagues, and .laid great stress upon the value 
of exact observation and experiment. He says : ' In the study- 
room one can make no such observations. The teacher must, at 
the time such pests prevail, go out into the country, and hold his 
dietetic, pathologic, and therapeutic discussion in the afflicted sta- 
bles ; he must observe the situation and character of the stables, 
and cause better ventilation, cleanliness, and care of the animals ; 
he must visit the fields, meadows, and drinking-places, in order to 
ascertain if in them are not to be sought either immediate or mediate 
causes of infection, and what in every case is necessary to propose 
for the better protection of the animals. He must gather all forms 
of dew, and make therewith chemical and physiological experi- 
ments, and must also have recourse to the microscope in order to see 
if he can not discover some poisonous insects, which, either of them- 
selves or with their semen, so pollute the vegetation as to cause the 
generation of the pest or other infectious disease.' (In reading this 
one almost forgets he is passing over words written more than one 
hundred years since.) ' The teacher shall study the animal in all 
its parts, its mode of life, procreation ; and, when necessary, shall 
have recourse to the crucible and distillation to increase his knowl- 
edge. He must separate things into their minute parts, unite and 
make new bodies, and seek to attain a sort of despotic power over 
nature.' " 

This is what was thought in the last century by the founder of 
veterinary medicine in Germany. The schools must he useful nurs- 
eries of science, and not produce mere empirics. 

Let us see if the schools have fulfilled their task, and, if not, seek 
to discover what has prevented them from doing so. 

It is all the more our duty to do this, as the popular judgment 
with regard to the results at the schools seems to be at present un- 
favorable. Not only the organs of the state and agriculture, the 
interests of which are to be served by the educated veterinarian 
from an economical point of view, but also the graduates of the. 
schools, concur, more or less, in this opinion, as was sufficiently 
demonstrated at the Frankfort congress of German veterinarians in 
1872. 

It is especially the duty of the teachers at the schools to acknowl- 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 3H 

edge these evils, and to seek for their removal, and I doubt not that 
the governments will respectfully listen to our demands for reform. 

I pledge myself to have the strictest regard for the truth in the 
task I have undertaken, even though it may be unpleasant to some, 
and to bind myself to facts ; and, in proving the questions we have to 
consider, to do it according to the strictest methods of science, and 
to keep in mind only the attainable and practical parts of the ques- 
tion. 

With reference to the history of the Munich school, we shall 
most speedily atain our end if we consider those causes which have, 
at different times, interfered with the production of good veterina- 
rians. Then I will show that even in our day evil conditions still 
exist, the complete removal of which is beyond the power of the 
best teachers, notwithstanding all diligence and perseverance. The 
proposals for improvement will then receive their consideration. 

The school at Munich has passed through two epochs since its 
foundation. The first extends from its establishment in 1790 to the 
year 1852, and the second from that date to the end of the school 
year 1872. 

Nothing satisfactory can be said about the condition and results 
at our school during the first epoch. Empiricism obtained a greatly 
extended duration in Bavaria, while at the other veterinary schools 
(German) it extended only to the second decennium of our century. 
Many of the learned gentlemen present studied at our school during 
this period and must confirm my judgment, that our institute had 
until then never filled the place of a scientific veterinary school as 
portrayed by Cothenius. Nothing but schooled " routiniers " were 
produced, nor did they dare to produce anything else. They hid 
themselves under a deceptive cloud, by boasting of their abhorrence 
of speculative theories and of their great respect for practical things, 
which by no means should be neglected, but by this means they nour- 
ished an imbecile empiricism and sought to keep distant from all true 
science. It was made exceedingly difficult for young men of better 
preparatory education to gain entrance to the school ; in fact, they ap- 
pear to have been intentionally avoided, so that any external incite- 
ment to scientific work became impossible. The experimental 
method suggested by Cothenius as absolutely necessary to the 
schools had no place in the programme. The great reforms in 
medicine in general, and every natural science, were passed heed- 
lessly by, by the Munich school of that period. Instruction in natu- 
ral sciences, the foundation of the study of medicine, was so neg- 
lected that one feels almost ashamed to mention it. The few stu- 



312 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

dents who gained admittance from the " real schools " were aston- 
ished thereby, and scorned to make notes upon the nonsense which 
they heard from the lecturer at the desks of the school. There was 
neither chemical laboratory nor physical cabinet, but every "real 
school" had these long before 1852, and all the attributes necessary 
to good elementary instruction in natural science. 

Let it remain so ! We will not follow this sad relation further. 
You will believe me, however, that with the exception of anatomy, 
the conditions were no more flattering with reference to the purely 
veterinary branches than with the natural sciences upon which they 
are founded. One would naturally assume that, although the scien- 
tific side of our education was so much neglected, the students at 
least received a good practical education. On the contrary, that 
was not the case. 

Let us see if we can not discover the causes of this neglect of 
the teachings of Cothenius. 

To this end we must again have reference to the general history 
of the schools, and bear in mind the extravagances of the first French 
schools, to which many evil influences may be justly attributed. 

Two schools (Lyons and Alfort) were organized in France some 
years before the foundation of any in Germany. The Alfort school 
was larger than that at Lyons, and received from the beginning 
great attention and care from the Government. The fittings of the 
school exceeded those of the German schools, even in our day, and 
every condition was present to attain the ends which should be re- 
quired of a school except fitting teachers and promoting veterinary 
science. Suitable teachers are and ever will be the chief desidera- 
tum / without them all donations of money are useless. This was 
soon experienced by the French schools. Instead of proceeding in 
the manner indicated by Cothenius, and first paying their attention 
to the development of proper teachers, they sought at once to make 
the world wise by a display of superficial knowledge. The students 
were educated in a manner to produce superficial but ready talkers, 
but not to become methodical and educated veterinarians. The Al- 
fort school especially sought to gain an acknowledgment of supe- 
riority from other nations, which was, indeed, attained, but not with- 
out great injury to herself. Chairs for agriculture, comparative 
anatomy, natural sciences, animal painting, etc., were even then 
attained, although the raw empirical material at command had by 
no means been sufficiently culled out. The students must at once 
be educated to be obstetricians, wound and eye doctors, coroners, 
etc., in order to fill the wants of the country in this regard. They 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 313 

founded a menagerie filled mostly with exotic animals, and gave 
great attention to the breeding of sheep, rabbits, fowls, and even 
silk- worms. To the formation of the so-called " royal cabinet," stu- 
dents and teachers were sent at great expense to the sea-coast to 
gather examples of different sea-animals. They studied the anato- 
my of the dolphin and ray, and forgot that of the domestic animals. 
This superficial learning of a little of many things was especially cul- 
tivated by Bourgelat to the cost of a true scientific method, and 
found, fortunately, little imitation in Germany. But instead of pass- 
ing quietly by these French extravagances, and copying them in 
what good things they had, we fell into the opposite extreme of 
developing one-sided empirics, the so-called " Rossarzte " (horse-doc- 
tors) and " Kurschmiede " (farriers). Every attempt of individual 
men at the schools to introduce the true scientific method was ener- 
getically combated, and the French schools quoted to strengthen 
the ground of the opponents. Bojanus, medical councilor in Hesse, 
enjoys the unenviable reputation of having most successfully op- 
posed all improvement. I can not refrain from telling you how 
Bojanus would have the veterinarians educated and the schools con- 
ducted. He had a controlling power at the Munich school until 
1852. 

Bojanus looked upon the education of practical men as the sole 
task of the schools. They would fail of our purpose were they edu- 
cated to be scientific veterinarians. (The English have most reli- 
giously followed in this direction even to our day, and here in Amer- 
ica a good practical ignoramus is in general more prized than the 
man of genuine scientific attainments ; let it be understood, I claim, 
a truly scientific man can never be aught else than practical.) Cer- 
tain axioms were to be learned as articles of practical belief, the 
students being reduced to mere mechanical machines. The state 
needed only veterinary hand-workers (in some parts of France the 
veterinarians are still spoken of as " artistes veterinaires "), who would 
follow the rules learned at school with blind confidence. Such a 
practitioner never asks the cause of the phenomena which he sees 
presented to him by a diseased organism ; he does not seek to enter 
into the real nature of the disease, but is contented to know that dis- 
ease is before him. He does not seek to arrange a special method 
of treatment, but uses that which he has learned as something dis- 
covered for all time. He is all content when the patient recovers, 
and asks not why, nor under what necessary laws, it has taken place. 
He enters public life as a common artisan, and must always be 
classed as such ; he never feels the power in him that is given to 



314 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

the scientifically educated man, but is content with the bounds and 
bars which surround him. The school was to take only such stu- 
dents from the masses as were fitted to go back again to the same. 
Their knowledge was to be limited to what was necessary to their 
livelihood, and to read and write sufficient to support the memory. 
No other preliminary knowledge was considered necessary. They 
were entirely wanting in a preparatory scientific education or spirit. 

You will permit me to describe to you the method of instruction 
which Bojanus would have introduced into the schools, especially 
as two teachers of modern times (Director Rueff, of Stuttgart, and 
Professor Plug, of Giessen) would have us follow in the same di- 
rection. 

Bojanus writes : " It is the duty of the practical veterinarian to 
cure the sick animals belonging to the public. His office, which 
does not belong to the most respected, brings him constantly in 
relation with the commonest people, to whose ideas and conceptions 
he must adapt himself if he will not endanger his success and let it 
pass over into the hands of quacks and herdsmen. He busies him- 
self with disgusting work in dirty stables, and all his endeavors and 
privations are rewarded with but a scanty income which scarcely 
covers his necessities, and, at the most, permits him to enter society 
as an ordinary artisan." Bojanus then goes on to say that "the 
scientifically educated veterinarian is unsuited to such work, and 
could not lower himself to the necessary level, and is therefore 
never looked upon by the people as a ^radical man, and, there- 
fore, it is the duty of the schools to educate practical, not scientific, 
veterinarians." These words of Bojanus justify us in concluding 
that he knew right well the qualifications of a scientific veterina- 
rian, but he intentionally put all he could in the way of their edu- 
cation. On the contrary, Bojanus would have the teachers scientific 
men in order that they might discover new methods of treatment 
and give them to the students, who were supposed to follow im- 
plicitly in these ruts in practice. To the end that the state may 
have such teachers, Bojanus would have another form of school, a 
higher, scientific school. In these were to be taken the candidates 
for teachers' positions, with a complete scientific education from 
the lap of the academy. Bojanus either did not see, or passed in- 
tentionally by, the fact that the state needs scientifically educated 
veterinarians for the purposes of veterinary police and forensic 
medicine, and for the perfection of the breeds of the domestic 
animals. The second class of veterinarians were there only to be 
curers, and a very small class of scientific veterinarians to develop 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 315 

cure-methods for the benefit of the former. In this way there came 
to pass the idea that two classes of veterinary schools were necessary, 
which occasionally finds an advocate even in our day, although it 
must be remarked that these people go higher in their demands for 
a veterinary academy, and propose that not only teachers but a small 
number of scientific veterinarians also shall be educated for the pur- 
poses of the state. 

If we return to the conditions in Bavaria, we shall find that only 
the poorest proposals of Bojanus came to fulfillment, and that no 
one bothered himself about the education of scientific veterinari- 
ans. According to the edict of 1810 for the organization of the 
veterinary institutes of Bavaria, that only went out of power in the 
last few years, it was found very convenient (at first, doubtless, ne- 
cessary) to promote the forensic M. D.'s to veterinarians of the first 
class, falsely assuming that the doctor, from his education, was well 
adapted to be the highest veterinary authority, and that a short 
visit to the lectures at a veterinary school would completely equalize 
any want of knowledge he previously might have. The lectures for 
this purpose in Munich lasted eight days. In two or three hours 
were completed the lectures upon nutrition in the horse and rumi- 
nants ; in one hour those upon operative surgery ; and in one to 
five hours the elements of animal pests, or veterinary police ; one 
to three hours were given to gaining practical knowledge in the 
clinic. Only an idiot could assert that this kind of education would 
suffice to the production of scientific veterinarians, for even in 1T90 
the full course of study for second-class veterinarians at Munich 
extended over three full years. 

The above description sufficiently indicates the hindrances in 
the way to the education of scientific veterinarians in the first epoch 
of our school, and no one need wonder that our science stood still 
impotent in comparison to human medicine and that it could not 
develop to that position which it was expected would be the case 
with the foundation of the schools. Notwithstanding the difficul- 
ties which they had to overcome, it must be said, to the credit of 
the profession, that even during this period many men of acknowl- 
edged ability were to be found in the land ; but it is impossible to 
place this to the credit of the school, but to the great diligence of 
the individuals, who overcame the failures of their school educa- 
tion. A not less praiseworthy service of these men was the fact 
that they mercilessly exposed the weakness of the school, and finally 
succeeded in bringing about the reform which took place in 1852. 

After the Government of Bavaria had seen the failures in the 



316 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

manner in which the school was conducted, and after it had re- 
peatedly heard the grumblings of the agriculturists that mere em- 
pirics were useless, a reform was decided upon, which, however, 
failed of a scientific basis. The germ of the failure was that the 
school still remained patterned after those of France, and was left 
free from every connection with the medical faculty. It was as- 
sumed that all scientific foundation in the preliminary education 
was unnecessary, save what little was gained by students in a low 
class of a " real " school, and the two lowest classes in Latin. The 
teachers were too few, and, taken mostly from the old empirical 
school, were not adequate to the education of veterinarians suitable 
to the purposes of the state. They were so poorly paid that they 
were obliged to have outside occupations in order to live, so that 
teaching and self-improvement became a matter of secondary im- 
portance. 

" I myself had the misfortune to study three years (1857-60) un- 
der this regime. The conditions at the school then were sad indeed, 
for I will describe to you a time when we should have seen some- 
thing of the development of the scientific spirit. The school did 
not then have the least scientific character ; even the good of the 
old school, the instruction in anatomy and dissection, was neglected. 
The physiology which we heard was nothing else than what Schwab 
had written many years before for the instruction of empirics. !Not 
a single experiment illustrated the lectures. There was no practice 
in the use of the microscope. The instruction in natural science, 
over which so much talk was made, consisted in nothing else than 
in learning by rote a few pages of poorly compiled chemical analyses 
from Gorup-Besanez's work upon that subject. There was a chemi- 
cal laboratory which had just been erected, but only for the agri- 
cultural experiment station, and exclusively for the use of students 
of agriculture and forestry from the university. The instruction in 
botany was very poor. Physics was not taught. The formulas for 
the preparation of medicines passed as traditions from student to 
student, and I do not say too much in stating that not a single one 
was correct. Pharmaceutical chemistry was lectured upon by an as- 
sistant, but a second one coming after one lecture had been deliv- 
ered, we did not attend them further, for we knew more chemistry 
than he did. The pharmacognostical collection was poor, old, moldy, 
and unsuitable for study or demonstration. The teaching upon the 
action of medicines was nothing more than a mere phraseology, 
which served to hide the ignorance of the teacher, but did not help 
to instruct the students. The balance of the instruction bore the 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 317 

same character. The dependency and insufficiency of the institute 
is well illustrated by one fact, which amply shows the requirements 
which were necessary. In order to make a correct necroscopical 
diagnosis, for instance, of Bright's condition of the kidneys, it was 
necessary to call in the assistance of a professor of pathological anat- 
omy from the medical faculty of the university, and numerous valu- 
able and instructive specimens sent to the school by practicing vet- 
erinarians perished for want of proper appreciation. It is no wonder 
that the congress of veterinarians at Wiirzburg, in 1860, pronounced 
it a waste of time, trouble, and money, to allow the institute to con- 
tinue its existence. I will cease, at this point, enumerating the sins 
of the Munich school during the first half of this epoch, as it would 
not be courteous to extend it to the present teachers." 

Let us turn our attention for a moment to the other schools of 
Germany, for I have endeavored to get at the true facts, so far as 
was in my power. With the exception of Berlin, which, notwith- 
standing a brilliant external reputation, had fallen into a stage of 
semi-torpidity, its teachers having become old, and new power being 
needed, and the school at Stuttgart, the schools at Dresden and 
Hanover were in many instances worthy of being considered as 
models. Dresden had suffered a complete renovation, and Gerlach 
worked in Hanover. (In both these cases it was, however, the work 
of single individuals which gave these schools what little advantage 
they had. Haubner in Dresden, and, as Feser says, Gerlach in Han- 
over ; there was nothing general about it.) But neither of them 
went beyond the education of clever empirics — in proof of which 
may be noted the fact that, after the reformation of the plan of the 
Dresden school, of which so much was spoken and expected, it was 
found impossible to find veterinarians suitable for teachers, and the 
chairs were only finally filled by going outside of Saxony, and at 
great expense. (Here is a proper place for me to remark that, not- 
withstanding the high position which I have claimed for the Ger- 
man schools and other veterinary institutions, no one unacquainted 
with the true conditions can realize how few men there are among 
the graduates of the German veterinary schools at all fitted to be- 
come teachers, and every one of these few, and every man who 
has gained fame before them, have been obliged, at great cost to 
their physique and demands upon means which in no case are too 
plenty, to fill the great gaps in their education by studies at the 
medical schools of German universities. The number of men of 
real value to the scientific advancement of veterinary medicine at 
the schools of Germany is not more than sufficient to make a faculty 



318 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

for one school. There are unquestionably men of practical ability at 
these schools, but they are of that empirical character that does not 
advance science an inch, but, with a terrible reverence for the tra- 
ditions of the past, stand obstinately in the way of progress, and by a 
great display of verbose repetition of other people's work, make the 
world think they know more than they really do. If there is a man I 
fear, as an enemy to my profession, though personally he may be a 
good friend, it is the man of great experience, of great reverence for 
the past, of good talking abilities, hut without a particle of origi- 
nality or scientific spirit. Such men are more fitted for political 
intriguers than teachers at a scientific school.) 

After this diversion, let us return to Feser's remarks : 
" Under the above retarding conditions, it is no wonder that 
progress was checked, and all sorts of complaints found ready utter- 
ance. The agricultural papers and the organs of the state opened 
up the subject continually, complaining of the insufficiency of the 
veterinary profession in comparison with the demands which were 
made upon it. The reflecting Bavarian veterinarians again joined 
hands with the above-named forces, and loudly demanded reform 
both in the manner of instruction and a more exacting preparatory 
education. The battle for the improvement of the school finally 
found its way into the Chamber of Kepresentatives (1861), and re- 
sulted in a free offering of means to help on the purpose. But, in- 
stead of making a thorough reform, they contented themselves with 
all sorts of corrective regulations. They burnished up the roof of the 
school and whitewashed the facades, instead of beginning anew and 
laying a solid and enduring foundation. Xew professors were 
added to the old, until the school had eight, which was more than 
any other school in Europe. The clinic was improved, and many 
other innovations made. Finally, the director was changed, but not 
the system of instruction. The matriculatory examination still re- 
mained the same ; the entire weight of instruction in the natural 
sciences had to be borne by one man, who was at first without as- 
sistance or sufficient material support, and at the same time had to 
lecture on other strictly technical subjects. Physiology, the very 
foundation of scientific medicine, was lectured upon in only two 
sessions, before even the lectures on the natural sciences were ended, 
and therefore lacked the necessary basis. Empiricism in the hos- 
pital still continued. Microscopic practice was begun, but very im- 
perfectly, and so was it with everything at this school as well as the 
other German schools." 

The cause of all these difficulties is easy of discovery. Pro- 



THE SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. 319 

fessor Carl Yoit has done this in a very thorough manner. Accord- 
ing to him, it is not so necessary to consider the improvement of 
individual evils which are evident to us, but above all a change 
is necessary in the direction of the school, without which great exer- 
tions of both teachers and pupils can never lead to promising results. 
The causes why the Bavarian school has not developed into the in- 
stitution which it was expected it would, are to be sought, mostly, 
in the absolute neglect of those basal conditions upon which such a 
school can alone thrive. Such a school, to thrive, must be placed 
upon a scientific foundation. The first means by which this end is 
to be attained is a general and exact preparatory education of young 
men before they enter the school. The preparatory education of 
the students up to this time has been totally insufficient for them to 
be able to comprehend well the teachings of their technical teach- 
ers. To the study of veterinary medicine the same degree of pre- 
liminary education is necessary that is required for entering upon 
the study of human medicine, and without this the best teaching 
will be resultless. 

"The second condition to improvement is, that all students 
must be well grounded in the necessary natural sciences before 
entering the school. It is absolutely certain that this should also 
be of the same grade as for the students of medicine. The study 
of the natural sciences in the school itself must be completed 
before the technical branches of the profession are entered upon. 
It is impossible for the student to comprehend the teachings in 
physiology without a thorough anticipatory education in physics 
and chemistry. The thorough study of the natural sciences is the 
only means by which the student can learn to become a good experi- 
menter, or learn to think logically, or understand the processes of dis- 
eases and their products " (Yoit). The present students have never 
learned to think, because of the want of a thorough drilling in sci- 
entific methods ; it is this reason, and not because of want of disci- 
pline, that has made the results of teaching at our school so futile. 
" Or is it to be looked upon as a favorable result that out of twenty 
students, only five, and of these only two Bavarians, successfully 
passed their final examination after three years' study ? The evil 
is to be sought in the system." 

Only when a rigid education in the necessary branches of gen- 
eral science is required as a preparation, can the teachers hope for 
genuine success from the study of the strictly professional branches. 
From men thus educated can we alone hope to select those fitted for 
teachers. 



320 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

These unhappy conditions can only he equalized when the educa- 
tional chairs are filled with men whose education itself has oeen 
most strictly scientific, and when the students themselves have a simi- 
lar exact foundation he/ore entering the school. 

" This has been well seen by the veterinary profession, as is illus- 
trated by the following resolutions, drafted at the late Veterinary 
Congress at Frankfort " : 

I. With reference to the preparatory education of the German 
veterinarians : 

" The same conditions must be exacted of students entering upon 
the study of veterinary medicine, as of those entering upon the 
study of medicine or special natural sciences." 

II. With reference to the professional education of German 
veterinarians : 

" 1. To gain a good general knowledge of the elements of their 
profession, a four-year course is necessary and sufficient." 

" 2. The veterinary school must be an integral yet independent 
branch of the universities." 

The immense importance of the last resolution can not be over- 
estimated. The intimate relation which our domestic animals bear 
to human health ; the value of the studies of comparative anatomy 
and physiology ; the immense importance of the knowledge of gen- 
eral pathology and comparative pathological anatomy, are all things 
which have not yet had their due degree of appreciation. 

Further, the value of such a union in lessening the expenses of 
veterinary institutions should by no means fail of earnest considera- 
tion. The natural sciences can be heard by the students of both 
branches of medicine in common, thereby doing away with the ne- 
cessity of quite a number of special teachers at a veterinary school. 
Such a union is only practicable, however, at universities situated in 
large cities, for otherwise it would be impossible to fill the veteri- 
nary hospitals with the large number of animals necessary for the 
students to gain practical knowledge and dexterity. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 321 

THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 

The purpose of these sketches of some of the veterinary schools 
of the Continent is to afford, if possible, the American people some 
idea of the causes which led to their foundation, and of their weak- 
nesses as well as their many good points. While I have entered 
into details, as far as the means at my command offered me oppor- 
tunity, of those of France and Austria, I have reserved those of 
Prussia to the last, in order to notice them more in detail : first, be- 
cause many of the regulations which we shall at present consider are 
more or less common to the German Empire ; and, second, because, 
taken as a whole, I believe these institutions better capable of serv- 
ing as a model for us to follow after, with necessary modifications 
according to our peculiar conditions, than those of any other coun- 
try. I do not claim for them perfection, as some people seem to 
think, nor do I desire to ingraft them wholesale and inconsiderately 
upon the institutions of this country, as some ignorant persons have 
affirmed. 

The Yeteeinaey Institute at Berlin. 

This school covers, so far as I am aware, the largest tract of land 
of any of the European veterinary schools. It is situated on Loui- 
sen-strasse, opposite the noted Charite Hospital, and occupies some six 
acres of ground. It was founded in 1786, but was not opened until 
1790. The causes which led to its foundation were the losses which 
the nation had repeatedly suffered from devastating animal pests, 
especially the cattle-plague, against which every endeavor of the state 
had been utterly powerless. In the address, previously given, from 
Professor Feser, of Munich, we have shown the part which Cothe- 
nius took in the matter, although the idea undoubtedly originated in 
the mind of the king, Frederick the Great ; the school was organ- 
ized, however, under his successor, Frederick "William II. The 
school has been under the supervision of different officers of the 
Government, being at first controlled by the chief official of the 
royal stables, Graf Lindenau ; in 1817 it was transferred to the 
Ministers of War and the Interior; in 1847 to the Minister of the 
Medical Institutions, etc., and finally, in 1872, to the Minister of 
Agriculture, where it still remains. The instruction at the school 
was at first very elementary, its purpose being to educate young 
farriers, quite in contradiction to the express purposes for which the 
school was supposed to be founded. Professors Neumann and Sick 
conducted the instruction, the first having been sent to Alfort, the 
latter to Yienna, to study veterinary medicine at the expense of the 

21 



322 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

Government. An apothecary, Ratzeburg, lectured upon materia 
medica, etc. The course extended over three years, the education 
having an essentially practical tendency, and, as Feser says, the sci- 
entific ideas of Cothenius seem to have fallen on barren ground here 
at Berlin as well as elsewhere in Germany. Few changes took 
place previous to 1817, when complaints began to make themselves 
unpleasantly common with reference to the total insufficiency of 
the school to the needs of the country, the graduates being nothing 
more nor less than somewhat better schooled empirics than the raw 
material which had preceded them. William von Humboldt, Min- 
ister of State to Frederick William IT, and brother to the great 
naturalist, seems to have been well aware of these deficiencies, and 
to have proposed a plan which, if it had been carried out, would 
have placed this institution at an early day much further ahead than 
it even now is as a useful adjunct of the state : he proposed to unite 
it to the university ; but, alas ! the " horsey element " prevailed, and 
his advice was passed heedlessly by through the opposition of the 
Head-Master of the Royal Horse, Yon Jagow. Other untoward in- 
fluences were also exerted by the great naturalist Rudolphi, who 
afterward became director ; it is said that he desired to use the 
school as a means of enriching the collections in the museum of the 
university ; on the other hand, Thaer, the father of modern agricul- 
ture in Germany, used an influence in that direction, so that these, 
and probably other things, combined to nullify the sound ideas of a 
statesman like Yon Humboldt. 

Nevertheless, the discussion was not without benefit, for a re- 
vision followed and many improvements were introduced, among 
them the attachment to the school of one of the most important per- 
sonages in connection with its history — Dr. Gurlt, afterward direct- 
or. Gurlt was a scientist par excellence — a man wholly bound 
up in study, investigations, and in making collections for the mu- 
seum. The school gained great fame from his presence, but the 
benefits he conferred upon it were not so much due to his powers 
as a teacher as they were to his literary productions and the mag- 
nificence and great number of his scientific collections. I believe 
I do not exaggerate in saying that Gurlt was in reality the founder 
of all our veterinary anatomy of the present day ; he certainly intro- 
duced the true nomenclature of comparative anatomy, and more 
than any other man established the relation of given muscles in the 
domestic animals to those of man. He was also the chief worker in 
the field of the periodic development of the foetus in animals, as 
well as that of the monstrosities, and his collection of animal para- 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 323 

sites in the museum of the school is probably greater than those of 
any three schools combined. He also gave us the first book of zo- 
opathological anatomy, which has only been followed by Briickmul- 
ler. His last work, on animal monstrosities, issued when he was 
nearly ninety years old, is an ornament to the profession, although 
Gurlt's only connection with the school was as teacher and director, 
he being an M. D. He gave as the number of anatomical specimens 
in the museum of the school in 1869 — 6,408, which were mostly col- 
lected by him, and mounted under his supervision ; this number 
has been steadily increasing under his able successor in pathology, 
Professor Schutz, so that, although I have not the catalogue number, 
there must be at present in the museum some eight to ten thousand 
specimens. His collection of fetal specimens, illustrating their peri- 
odical development, is one of the ornaments of the school. 

In 1823 another M. D., Hertwig, was attached to the school 
after studying veterinary medicine at the most prominent institu- 
tions of the world at the expense of the Government. It was these 
two men who raised this school to the high degree of renown which 
it enjoyed up to about 1850. Hertwig has been one of the greatest 
contributors to veterinary literature that has ever lived ; he is a con- 
temporary of Hering, Haubner, and, of course, Gurlt, who with 
Spinola, as practical author, served to make the German name so 
famous in the middle of this century. His studies of rabies, sup- 
ported by numerous experiments, opened a new light upon the sub- 
ject, and have never been much improved upon ; these, with other 
contributions to canine pathology, in unison with those of Gerlach 
and Furstenberg, have served to make up about all there is, or has 
been written upon the diseases of the dog, other than a few practi- 
cal hints gained from experience. His work on materia medica 
was not excelled by any in human medicine in its day, and is 
founded largely on personal experiments. His surgery and work on 
operations are by no means antiquated. As the years increased with 
these men, the school slowly passed into decline ; its wonted activity 
was no more, but no want is felt long in this world before the right 
man is found to fill it. Leisering most beautifully pictures this con- 
dition in his obituary notice of Gerlach, who was called from Han- 
over to fill this place : " Slower and slower went the machine, 
which was chiefly to be sought in the increasing years of her once 
active men, who were no more able to keep pace with the rapid 
march of science, and who also nourished the opinion that new 
things are not always the best. But the machine moved again with 
new fire, partly with permanent and partly with transient powers, 



324 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

for as well-organized a body as the Berlin school had been since 
Langermann's time does not so easily come to a complete stand-still ; 
but that such an evil condition should not really occur a new fire- 
man was necessary — and he came. He made fresh fire, and we 
soon saw the glistening sparks." As Gerlach was, in my opinion, 
the most important character, the most original genius that has ever 
appeared on the German veterinary arena, if not of the world, I 
may be pardoned a short sketch of his life. I do this the more 
willingly, as the memory of this man still waits due appreciation 
in his native land, probably because of the intense severity with 
which he sought to instill into drones the grand fire by which he 
himself was impelled to sacrifice life, health, and friendship for the 
good of his profession and country. 

Andreas Christian Gerlach was born at Wedderstedt, in the 
Harz Mountains, the 15th of May, 1811. His parents were honest 
peasants, but had little means. His early education was received at 
the hands of some childless relations who resided near Halberstadt, 
who soon learned to love the pale, earnest boy as their own child. 
The child saw one day an old veterinarian in the village busied 
about some animals, which greatly excited his interest. He fol- 
lowed the old man from stable to stable, from patient to patient, 
and only returned late at night to the friends who had adopted him. 
This childhood's experience seems to have determined his future 
destiny. After his confirmation, his adopted parents sent him to 
Halberstadt to school, without, however, having sufficient means to 
cover his expenses. Here began a time which indeed proved the 
stuff the boy was made of, and which developed in him that char- 
acter which drew little love toward the man in later years, but 
which enabled him to overcome obstacles and trample under foot 
an opposition as bitter as any man ever had to combat. He had 
first to prepare for his entrance into the gymnasium, and lived in 
the family of a poor artisan, who kindly gave him food. He sought 
with great perseverance the company of students in the higher 
classes, hoping to improve his knowledge thereby. Leisering, from 
whom the above remarks are taken, says : " A doctor, with whom 
he is acquainted, who lived at Halberstadt at this time, told him 
some years back, after Gerlach had already become a noted man, 
that it was not without much feeling that he recollected how the boy 
Gerlach had come to him in his peasant clothing and begged, with 
his eyes filled with tears, that he would give him free instruction 
in Latin. . . . He finally completed his school-days at Halberstadt, 
after enduring untold hardships and a continued battle for the food 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 325 

necessary to support life ; but he had attained his end, and acquired 
the necessary knowledge for admittance to a veterinary school." 
He gained this knowledge at great cost, and therefore highly ap- 
preciated diligence in others. He was ever an advocate of higher 
education for veterinarians ; ever on the side which tended to the 
advancement of his profession ; from first to last he was a scientist 
and a student. He graduated from Berlin in 1833, and until 1844 
practiced his profession at the place of his nativity in Saxony. He 
there published a pamphlet upon " Anthrax in Sheep," which soon 
attracted the attention of the Government, and led to his being 
called to Berlin, first as assistant and then as teacher. In 1859 he 
received the honorable appointment of Director of the Veterinary 
School at Hanover, which he came near losing, however, as he 
placed as absolute condition to his acceptance that he should have 
the title of " professor," which had never before been given to a 
veterinarian, and which in North Germany does not mean, as it does 
in these glorious and free United States of America, anything 
from a genuine man of genius at a university down to a shoeblack, 
dealer in old clothes, or vender of quack medicines. His promotion 
to professor was soon followed by that to privy medical councilor. 
" He was in Prussia not alone the first veterinarian who received 
the direction of the veterinary school (previously it had always been 
given to medical men of note), but also the first veterinarian who, 
without being also an M. D., received the titles ' medical ' and 
' privy medical councilor.' " Between 1859 and 1S70 were made the 
greater part of those original researches, which have gained accept- 
ance not only in veterinary but human medicine. He was the first 
to obstinately deny the abiogenesis (self-develoj>ment) of glanders. 
To his investigations is also owing the excitement with reference 
to the transmissibility to human beings of the tuberculosis of cattle. 
To the extreme obstinacy with which he defended these opinions 
is due much of the opposition which he received from the profes- 
sion. In 1870 he became director of the school at Berlin, and began, 
or rather went on, developing the work of his life — the further intro- 
duction of the scientific method into veterinary instruction. So far 
as the future of the profession in Germany is concerned, I think that 
Gerlach's last act was by far his greatest — that is, the introduction 
of a specialist as physiologist to the school, and the erection of a 
proper laboratory and experiment station. I myself lived through 
this, and no one better knows the bitter opposition which conserva- 
tism and selfishness put in the way of the purposes of this man, whose 
only desire was to improve the school and serve well his country. 



326 TEE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

Gerlach was said to be a very one-sided man by those who felt 
the power of his opposition ; but this was only true in so far as it 
had reference to a man who was bending everything for the suc- 
cess of an ideal object. He was an idealist of the truest type. His 
entire character is expressed in the saying, " Be sure you are right, 
then go ahead." He was a hard and exact student of his position 
and responsibilities, and tried his best to fulfill them. He was not 
generous, as the world calls it, to the opinions of others. In per- 
sons occupying such positions, generosity, which in general soci- 
ety becomes a virtue, is nothing but a weakness. Gerlach was ex- 
ternally cold and autocratic, with the handsomest and cleanest-cut 
face I ever saw ; but behind all this coldness was a heart warm and 
generous, which went out to the hard-working student with almost 
a mother's love. He paid but little attention to the opinions of 
others, seldom consulted with the other professors, but, like a king 
among men and like a Prussian as he was, ruled the school with an 
iron hand so far as his powers would permit. Naturally, men lack- 
ing ambition, in whom the sparks of science found no fitting mate- 
rial to ignite, felt ill at ease with such a man, and he felt discon- 
tented with them ; hence, during his whole administration of the 
school there was a healthy excitement kept up between these two 
opposing forces. But, had Gerlach lived ten years longer, there is 
no doubt who would have won. He died at sixty-six years of age, 
at Berlin, August 29, 1877, of cancer of the stomach. 

Gerlach died ten years too soon. At present, at the Berlin school, 
the practical education bears no proper relation to the scientific. 
The teachers are too bitterly opposed to one another, the one set 
being purely scientific, the other representing the scholastic-empiric 
school of which Feser speaks, which ruled absolutely until after the 
middle of the century. The German Government showed itself 
unequal to the occasion when Gerlach died. The manner of ap- 
pointing professors, so far as the veterinary school is concerned, is 
not so just or good in Germany as in France. It is based too much 
upon literary reputation, without taking into consideration that 
ability to teach well, which is as necessary as extensive knowledge. 
Another great evil in Germany, which all countries share more or 
less, is fear of a young man. Other things being equal, the expe- 
riences of years have value, but men of genius often gain more ex- 
perience in a few years than the average man does in a lifetime. 
The moment a man ceases to be progressive he is of little use to the 
world. In appointing a new director at the school, there was fully 
as much political wire-pulling as is exercised by candidates for mayor 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 327 

or governor in this country, and this in Germany, where American- 
ism is sneered at. There was this difference, the wire-pulling was 
done by men of unquestionable ability in some directions, but neither 
one of the candidates was fitted to carry on the work of progress. 
They were all good men, but unfortunately had too much of the old 
school about them to meet the demands of the time. The Govern- 
ment seemed to be entirely ignorant of the great failing of the 
school, which is the surgical clinic, and everything pertaining to it. 
An utter want of practical horsemanship runs through the whole 
thing. The treatment of internal diseases leaves nothing to be 
desired, but the external treatment, in many cases, may be truly ex- 
pressed by the English word " botch." There had never been any real 
practical surgery taught at the school. A great many operations are 
made, but seldom handsomely. The opportunity to reform all this 
was placed at the disposal of the German Government. But there 
was no one to inform it, and how should the ministers know? The 
opportunity was there to reform the surgical clinic, but, what is still 

more to the point, the man was there also. Dr. knew that a 

school hospital is for the purpose of instructing students, and that 
the curing of patients, so long as the interests of the owner are re- 
spected, is a matter of secondary importance. The death-rate was 
perhaps a little large, but the number of recoveries in desperate 
cases more than counterbalanced it. Our clinical instruction was 
really magnificent. He knew, better than any one at the school, its 
greatest failure, and studied night and day as to the best means of 
overcoming it. One great mistake and waste of material at the 
Berlin school, one which clearly demonstrates that from the begin- 
ning the aim of education in a given direction was never understood 
(it is the same at the French school), is the way in which the stu- 
dents practice operative surgery. It is plain butchery, not sur- 
gery. "What sense is there in merely cutting certain nerves, opening 
certain cavities, ligaturing an artery or two, upon a living animal, 
though it be chloroformed ? The students learn to cut, not to op- 
erate. Is cutting the whole of surgery ? In human medicine they 
learn to cut upon the cadaver, and it can be done equally well in 
veterinary medicine. But I none the less believe in taking advan- 
tage of our ability of practicing operative surgery upon the living 
animal in veterinary medicine, when chloroformed. But if this is 
limited to mere cutting, it is but butchery. To be practical, the 
necessary number of horses should be procured by the school, prop- 
erly groomed and fed ; the students to operate should be selected ; 
they should be privileged to select their assistants from their col- 



328 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

leagues ; then they should deliver a lecture before the class as to the 
operation, its history, and ways of performing it, the reasons for its 
performance in practice, the teacher correcting or suggesting as the 
student proceeds. One such operation, and sometimes more, should 
be done daily throughout the year. The cutting exercise can be 
under the guidance of an anatomical assistant on the cadaver. These 
operations should be performed according to the strictest rules of 
surgery, and the different forms of treatment experimented with ; 
the student operating should receive the animal operated upon as a 
patient, and treat him in the hospital as such ; the wounds should 
be bound up, the same as in practice, and every endeavor should be 
made to improve the methods. All other operative surgery, either 
as practiced at Berlin or in France, is a " botch" and humbug, cruel 
to animals and degrading to the profession ; but the above plan is 
dignified with a scientific purpose ; it may serve two ends at the 
same time — properly exercise the student, and serve as an experi- 
ment by which general surgery may be benefited, and some new 
method find proof or contradiction. It is in unison with the true 
purpose of a school, the perfect union of theory and practice, which 
makes up the science of medicine. 

Were this the only error of the Government in the management 
of this school, it would be fortunate indeed. But, not satisfied with 
making an error in one direction, they must equal it in another. At 
the school was a young man of marked genius, of genuine scientific 
spirit, who was ranked as prosector in anatomy, the only trouble 
being that he knew too much, and was not to be brought into the 
scholastic-empiric leading-strings. The non-progressive tricksters, 
unable to control, resolved to get rid of him. As in England in- 
cumbrancers have often been confined in lunatic asylums, or great 
men banished by imbecile governments, so they sought to send him 
to the Russian frontier to watch the rinderpest. A man of science 
to act as an ordinary policeman ! was ever anything more ridiculous ? 
Fortunately, other powers existed. Instead of banishment to the 
Russian frontier, our young assistant received government aid to pur- 
sue the study of comparative anatomy under Gegenbauer and Wal- 
deyer. He was the man above all others to take Gurlt's place in vet- 
erinary anatomy ; ay, more ! he recognized the practical needs, and 
his lectures were models of scientific foundation applied to practical 
ends. One would think that such a man could not fail of apprecia- 
tion ; but such was not the case. He received a call to Dresden, and 
the Prussian Government, blind to its own interests, the direction of 
the school false to its duties to the profession, quietly let him go. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 329 

The Buildings. 

As one approaches the school from " Louisen-strasse," he is struck 
at once by the imposing building which marks the entrance, and 
serves as a residence for most of the teachers. The front wall of 
that part of the building, which serves as entrance to the grounds 
in the rear, is embellished with busts of Aristotle, Absyrtus, Ra- 
mazzini, Lancisi, Lafosse, Pessina, Bourgelat, Kersting, Cothenius, 
Langermanu, Wollstein, and Abildgaard, men intimately connected 
with the birth of veterinary science. The accommodations for the 
residences of the teachers are liberal in the extreme, and in many 
respects the suites are really magnificent. In this building are three 
lecture-rooms, and one for chemistry and physics, with appropriate 
cabinets. The fine library, of some ten thousand volumes, espe- 
cially rich in valuable historical works, is situated in this building. 
The students are allowed to take books home and to keep them a 
reasonable length of time. On passing through the corridor of this 
building, the fine grounds of the institution, with their winding 
walks and grand shade-trees, make a most pleasing impression upon 
the visitor. 

The anatomy building and museum is, strange to say, almost 
spoiled, so far as appearances are concerned, by being situated in 
a hollow, when sufficient commanding ground was and is to be had 
to show the truly fine architectural proportions of the building. 
It was drafted by the celebrated architect Langhans, and the main 
portion, which was built under his direction, is frequently pointed 
out as an example of his genius. In the basement is the dissection- 
room, with accommodation for two hundred students. Like many 
older German buildings, it is miserably ventilated, but it would be 
well lighted were it not for its abominable situation. The anatom- 
ical lecture-room, which is also used for the same purpose by the 
physiologist and pathologist, is without doubt the finest of its kind 
at any school. It can seat some three hundred students, the seats 
being arranged in an amphitheatre, the entrance being in the cen- 
ter ; it is lighted entirely from above. The preparations are ele- 
vated upon a table from the room below. 

The Physiological and Pathological Institutes, two fine build- 
ings, costing with their appointments some $50,000, are something 
which np other veterinary school has in the world. 

In the Anatomical Institute is situated also the microscopical 
laboratory, with microscopes for the class, and every convenience 
for work in this branch of study. 



330 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

As we turn to go toward the horse hospital we pass that for 
dogs, with accommodations for about fifty, and fitted up with a 
small laboratory for chemical and microscopical examinations. The 
attendant resides in the building. The dog practice is very large 
at Berlin ; one good feature is, that if a dog bites any one in the 
city, he can report it to the police, and the owner must bring the 
dog here to be watched for the requisite number of days with refer- 
ence to rabies. 

The horse hospital has room for about one hundred and thirty 
patients, many of the stalls being boxes; the stables surround a 
court, in which the free clinic is held. A new and handsome stable 
was added during Grerlach's direction. In this stable is the labora- 
tory for clinical examination. The stables are fine and clean, but 
they need the genius of an English or American head groom to 
make them what they really should be. The fees for patients taken 
into the hospital are in general fifty cents per day, which includes 
every expense ; operations are all performed free of charge. There 
is a special department for animals affected with contagious diseases, 
or in which the same are suspected ; another for forensic cases, for 
which a fee is asked in addition, as well as for the exact examination 
of horses. In both cases a warrant is given, and the questionable 
animal must remain at least three days, during which time it is 
tested in every possible manner. Casual examinations cost nothing, 
but no warrant is given. There are also special stalls for animals 
with cerebral troubles, so that they can not injure themselves, so 
far as it is possible to prevent it. There are two large halls for 
operations. There is also a cow-stable, holding some forty head, 
besides sheep, goats, swine, rabbits, etc., which are to be used for 
experimental purposes. The servants of the school live in build- 
ings on one side of the court. At one entrance of this inclosure is 
the pharmacy, treasury, and some teachers' and assistants' residences. 
The patients in the open clinic receive advice free, but pay for 
medicines prescribed at the regular price of the drugs, without the 
cost of preparation at the pharmacy. The students prepare all 
medicines, under the guidance of the assistant to the teacher of 
chemistry. The patients in the hospitals are divided equally among 
the senior students, each of whom directs and looks out for them as 
if in actual practice, being guided and questioned by the teachers. 
Each day the students hear a special lecture upon some selected 
patient, illustrating some special phase in the progress of certain 
diseases. From the large amount of material at command, the 
teacher is enabled to follow a certain course in these clinical talks. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 331 

Practice and lectures upon auscultation and percussion form a very 
strong point in the clinical instruction. There are, during the last 
half year of a graduating class, two classes of students in the hos- 
pital, those of the lower acting as assistants to their seniors. On 
the graduation of the latter, the others then have a full year to 
themselves, when the same course is again pursued. Everything 
necessary to absolutely perfect instruction is present at this school, 
the guiding genius to set things in the right direction being alone 
needed. 

The following statistics will give some idea of the practical dis- 
cipline which this school offers to its students, and which is not 
equaled by any other in the world. 

In 1875 the following animals were received in the hospital, or 
treated elsewhere by the students : 

In the clinic, 2,333 horses, 2 cattle, 2 sheep, 3 swine — 2,340. 

In the dog-clinic (dogs, cats, etc., mostly dogs) — 3,368. 

In the free clinic, 4,459 horses, 5 goats, 2 swine — 4,466. 

Yisiting clinic,* 268 cattle, 49 sheep, 11 goats, 191 swine — 519. 
Grand total, 10,693 animals. 

The number of herds also visited was thirty. 

The number of surgical operations performed at the school was 
542. 

In 1876 the number of patients taken into the clinic, or visited, 
was 11,537. 

In one of the stables is the forge of the school. 

The expenses of this institution, from the first quarter of 1878 
to the end of the first quarter of 1879, were 157,670 marks, or $39,- 
417.50 ; derived as follows : 

From the hospital and students' fees 91,190 marks, t or $22,797 50 

" " state funds 66,480 " " 16,620 00 

Total $39,417 50 

The money granted by the state is more or less, according to 
the needs of the institution ; and we see that, during this year, when 
but little building was carried on, the expenses of the school ex- 
ceeded the income by over $16,000. 

All the teachers of the institution, as well as other officials and 
servants, have free residence found them. All the professors and 

* The institution has four horses, and suitable vehicles for this purpose, and such 
visits are made daily, four students at a time going with a certain teacher. 
f A mark is a quarter of a dollar. 



332 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

teachers have a fluctuating income of from 500 to 600 marks ($125 
to $150) per year, from the examination fees of the students. 
The salaries of the teachers are as follows : 

1. Privy Councilor and Director Roloff, 7,800 marks, or $1,950. 

2. Professor Muller, anatomist, 5,100 marks, or $1,775. 

3. Professor Schutz, pathologist, 3,900 marks, or $975. 

4. Professor Munk, physiologist, 3,600 marks, or $900. 

5. Professor Pinner, chemist, 3,600 marks, or $900. 

6. Professor Dierkerhoff, special pathology, history, and clinic, 
3,300 marks, or $825. 

7. Professor Dr. Moeller, materia medica, etc., and dog-clinic, 
3,000 marks, or $750. 

Teacher, Mr. Eggeling, surgery, etc., 1,800 marks, or $450. 

All the professors have besides additional incomes from positions 
held by them on the National Board of Health, or on the Veteri- 
nary Department of Prussia, or as lecturers at the University or 
Agricultural Academy, or as inspectors in the province of Branden- 
burg, or for a district in the neighborhood of Berlin. 

There are a number of resident assistants, who receive each 1,200 
to 1,500 marks, a portion of the examination-fees, and furnished 
lodgings, fuel, gas, service, etc. Aside from these, professors 2, 3, 
4, 5, 6, 7, have each a junior assistant, being young graduates who 
have received their diplomas the year before. These assistants re- 
ceive a stipend (granted for the half-year, but generally renewed for 
two to three half-years) of from 500 to 600 marks for each session, 
being from 1,000 to 1,200 marks per year. Two of these assistants 
have free lodgings at the school. The Professor of Chemistry has a 
special assistant, who receives 1,800 marks yearly. 

Other Officials. 

1. Two secretaries, with salaries of 3,300 and 2,100 marks each. 

2. A treasurer, with a salary of 3,000 marks. 

3. An inspector, who superintends the servants, with a salary of 
2,400 marks. 

4. A messenger, with a salary of 1,000 marks. All these persons 
are royal officers, and are appointed for life, and can only he dis- 
missed oy verdict of the Court of Discipline. 

5. A gardener, with a salary of 1,000 marks, who holds his office 
by a contract with the directors. 

Servants. — There are fourteen servants for the stables, the Ana- 
tomical and Physiological Institutes, and the pharmacy, receiving 
each from 60 to 75 marks per month. Also four women who do 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 333 

the cleaning, with from 18 to 21 marks' pay per month. They all 
live upon the grounds. 

The Students. 

The students are divided into two classes, military and civil, to 
which may be added certain " hospitants," who are agriculturists, 
graduates of other schools, foreigners, or other persons desiring to 
hear certain lectures. 

The military students form by far the greater majority, and re- 
side in a fine barracks, just outside the school-grounds, and opposite 
the military school for horseshoeing, in which they all have to study, 
and serve six months in practice, and pass an examination, before 
they can enter the veterinary institution. They do not dress in 
uniform, except at certain hours each week, or when called upon to 
appear on dress parade. Each class has a superior army veterinarian 
over them, who is responsible for their attention to their studies, 
and attendance at the lectures, and who questions them weekly in 
order to keep posted as to their progress. Students who are inatten- 
tive to duty are warned, examined, and, if their ill-conduct is per- 
sisted in, are turned over to the army to serve out their time as 
soldiers. This may take place at any time during the student's 
course, even after he has failed in the second final examination, un- 
less he may have already served his appointed time in the army. 
Their general conduct is subject to the control of an army officer, 
and they are kept under very strict discipline, being sometimes pun- 
ished with confinement. The Government supplies them with a 
small amount of pocket-money — 30 marks per month, I believe — be- 
sides the necessary books, instruments, fuel, attendance, etc. ; in ad- 
dition to which their building has lately been supplied with a very 
complete medical library, costing some $1,500, so that the army 
students have not to go out of their building if they desire to read 
up any special subject, either in human or veterinary medicine. 
Each military graduate must serve two years in the army, as an army 
veterinary surgeon, for each year's schooling. Their pay is not 
large, nor do they rank so high, or receive the consideration which 
similar officers do in other armies, especially in the English, but their 
expenses are also smaller. They have the privilege, however, of 
studying, and enjoying a stipend by which they can again visit the 
school, and hear lectures and make the examinations for the high 
civil positions, so that on completion of their army service they can 
immediately apply for any vacancies which may occur. This privi- 
lege is only granted to those who have passed the first two grades in 
the examination ; those having the best can undergo these examina- 



334: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

tions in two years, the next in three, respectively. I can not give 
the number of students at the Berlin school, but it is not far from two 
hundred. A private letter informs me that there are to be one hun- 
dred and twenty-five in the dissecting-room in the study of anatomy 
this winter. The fees are very small ; for the three years I was there 
as a student, and the extra year, including the examination-fee, they 
were not over one hundred dollars. All material necessary for 
study is supplied by the Government free of expense to the students, 
including the use of the microscopes. 

The course of study and terms of examination are the same for 
all the schools in the empire, and were revised and published March 
27, 1878. I consider they can well serve as a model for the founda- 
tion of a school in this country, with but few modifications. There 
is no matriculation examination for foreigners, but they must stand 
the regular examination without change or favor. There is no need 
of a matriculatory examination for Germans, as they are only taken 
from classes of certain public schools, and the standard is fixed 
much higher than in nearly all other Continental schools. The 
school at Berlin will not, however, be what it should be until it is 
united with the university, which will give it a greater number of 
special instructors in the natural sciences, at but little extra expense 
to the Government. 

The following are the regulations for the admittance and exami- 
nation of the students, and are taken from the " Central-Blatt f iir 
das Deutsche Reich," herausgegeben in Reichskanzler-Amt, April 
5, 1878 : 

I. Central powers which can give the diploma to veterinarians : 
The diploma for veterinarians for the German Empire can only 

be given by the central powers (" Centralbehorden ") of such states 
of the empire in which one or more veterinary schools are situated ; 
consequently, at the present time, by the appropriate ministers of 
Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Hesse. (There is no 
independent school in Hesse, but the university at Giessen has a vet- 
erinary department.) 

II. Regulations with reference to the qualifications of candidates : 
The veterinary diploma is only to be given to such candidates 

as have satisfactorily stood the fixed examination. 

The examination is divided into two parts : 1. In the natural 
sciences ; and, 2. In the technical branches of study. 

The examination must take place at a German veterinary insti- 
tute. 

The examining body consists of the directors and teachers of the 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 335 

institute, with such persons as shall be ordered to be present by the 
appropriate minister. 

The composition of the examining commissions in the different 
sections of the examination is regulated by the ministers. 

The director conducts the whole examination. 

The Examination in the Natural Sciences. — 1. Conditions for 
competing. The candidate must testify : 

(a.) That he has had the requisite education. He must have the 
proper certificate of having been prepared to enter the first class 
("prima") of a gymnasium, or of a first class "real" school, in 
which the study of Latin has been obligatory, or of such an educa- 
tional institute as is recognized by the Government as of equal 
standing with the above. 

(b.) After having acquired the requisite scientific preparatory 
education, he must have studied for three sessions (one and a half 
year) at a veterinary or other high scientific school of the German 
Empire. 

The period for the examination in the natural sciences, as well 
as the notification of the candidate of his fitness to take part in it, 
is arranged by the directors of the respective schools. 

The notification of readiness to participate in the examinations, 
and the certificate of his having fulfilled the above conditions, must 
be handed by the candidate to the directors and indorsed by him. 
(The schools have especial forms for this purpose, on which each 
teacher testifies to the regular attendance of the students at the 
respective lectures and demonstrations.) 

The following are the branches in which the candidates are to 
be examined : Zootomy, inclusive of histology, physiology, botany, 
chemistry, physics, and zoology. 

The examination is oral, and public. Its aim is to ascertain if 
the candidate has obtained sufficient knowledge in the above sci- 
entific branches to warrant his proceeding with the study of the 
strictly professional ones. 

Only four candidates can be examined at one time. 

The examining commission consists of the director as chairman, 
and at least three associates. 

A complete account is kept of the progress of the examination 
by each candidate in each section of the examination. 

The examination in chemistry and physics, the " tentamen physi- 
cum " of the medical examination, or the pharmaceutical examina- 
tion, may be taken as an equivalent to the above examination in the 
same branches at a veterinary school. 



336 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

The results of the examination are to be indicated as follows : 

A judgment is to be given on the results of the examination in 
each of the above branches. The judgments are as follows : " Sehr 
gut " (excellent), " gut " (good), " geniigend " (satisfactory), " unge- 
niigend " (unsatisfactory), and " schlecht " (bad). 

The judgment in each branch is to be given by vote of the ex- 
amining commission. In a tie-vote, that of the director (chairman) 
decides. 

The candidate has passed his examination when he has at least 
received the judgment " satisfactory " in each individual branch. 

The conclusive judgment " excellent " can only be given when 
the candidate has passed in the majority of the branches as " excel- 
lent," and in the remainder as " good." 

The conclusive judgment " good " can only be given when he 
has passed in the greater number as " good," and in the remainder 
as " satisfactory." 

The conclusive judgment " satisfactory " can only be given when 
he has passed in the majority as " satisfactory," and in no branch as 
" unsatisfactory." 

The conclusive judgment " unsatisfactory " is given when the 
candidate has not passed in each branch with " satisfactory." 

If the candidate has received the judgment "unsatisfactory" 
in more than two branches, or as " bad " in more than one, or in one 
as " bad " and another as " unsatisfactory," he can only receive the 
conclusive judgment of " bad." 

Repetition of the Examination. — When the candidate has re- 
ceived the conclusive judgment of "unsatisfactory," he may be 
allowed a second examination at the expiration of three months ; it 
is only extended to those branches in which the candidate has re- 
ceived the judgment of " unsatisfactory " or " bad." 

"When he has received the conclusive judgment of "bad," a 
second examination can only be permitted him at the end of one 
year, and is to be extended over all the above-named branches. A 
second repetition of the examination can only be allowed a candi- 
date with the consent of the minister. 

The Expense of the Examination. — For the first examination, 
twenty marks ($5) ; for a repetition of the same, ten marks ($2.50) 
more. 

The Technical Examination. — For admittance to this examina- 
tion the candidate must present his certificate of having successfully 
passed the examination in natural sciences ; and, secondly, he must 
bring a certificate of having attended lectures for seven sessions at 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 337 

a German veterinary institute, or other German academy, and have 
heard lectures on the succeeding subjects, which must be testified 
to by the appropriate teachers : Zootomy and histology, inclusive 
of practical study in both branches ; physiology ; botany (anatomy 
and physiology of plants, classification, and practice in determina- 
tion of species ; the Berlin school has a special professor of botany 
from the university) ; chemistry, inorganic and organic, with prac- 
tical exercises ; physics ; zoology ; general pathology and therapeu- 
tics ; materia medica ; toxicology ; pharmacology, with practice ; 
pathological anatomy, with necroscopical practice and attendance 
at the demonstrations ; special pathology and therapeutics ; sur- 
gery and aciurgy ; theory and practice of horseshoeing ; dietetics ; 
breeding ; obstetrics ; exterior of domestic animals ; veterinary 
police ; hygiene ; forensic medicine ; history of veterinary medi- 
cine; clinical attendance, with practice ; and visiting clinic. 

Notification of the Examination. — The period for the notifica- 
tion, as well as for holding this examination, is fixed by the director, 
with the consent of the minister. The notification must be accom- 
panied with the proper attests from the teachers of attendance at 
the lectures upon the above subjects, and a short description of the 
principal events of the candidate's life. 

The director fixes the period for the examination in the different 
branches. 

Sections of the Examination, and the Regulations for the same. 
— The examination is public, and is subdivided into the following 
sections : 1. In anatomy, physiology, and pathological anatomy ; 2. 
In the medicinal clinic ; in the surgical clinic ; in operative surgery ; 
in pharmacology (practical and theoretical) ; 3. The conclusion. 

The examinations in the different sections follow in immediate 
succession. 

No candidate can enter upon an examination in a section until 
he has passed in the previous one. 

In the examinations in anatomy, physiology, and pathological 
anatomy, the candidate has to follow the following course : 1. To 
demonstrate and open one of the cavities of the body in the pres- 
ence of the examining body ; 2. To explain an osteological and syn- 
desmological preparation ; 3. To demonstrate and prepare an ana- 
tomical preparation ; 4. To prepare and explain histological prepa- 
rations in the presence of the teacher ; 5. To give an oral disser- 
tation upon a physiological subject ; 6. To make an autopsy of a 
diseased animal, or one of the cavities of the same, or to demonstrate 
a pathological specimen, and in both cases to reduce the results to 
22 



338 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

writing; further, to prepare and demonstrate pathological speci- 
mens with the microscope. 

The tasks in anatomy and physiology are given to the student 
by lot. The commission for this examination consists of three 
members. 

In the clinical examination the candidate has — 1. To examine 
an animal having an internal disease, and to make the diagnosis and 
direct its treatment for three successive days ; 2. The same with an 
animal having some surgical disease. 

In both cases the candidate is isolated, and has to prepare a 
written history of his patients and their diseases, their pathology, 
treatment, and the probable results of the case. 

The oral examination takes place in each case after the written 
descriptions have been handed in. The candidate must prepare the 
medicines exhibited to the patients. 

The candidate has, further, to perform, demonstrate, and explain 
three surgical operations upon a living animal ; also, to demonstrate 
two fresh or dried officinal vegetable preparations, as well as to 
recognize two chemical-pharmaceutical preparations, give their ele- 
ments, formula, etc. ; also, to stand an examination in materia med- 
ica, toxicology, etc. 

The operations, as well as the above-named medicinal objects, 
are selected by the students by lot. The examining body in each 
branch consists of two members. 

The conclusive examination can extend over all branches of 
study, so far as they have not been the object of special examina- 
tions in the above sections. 

• Only four candidates can be examined at one time, which must 
take place under the supervision of the director and at least three 
other members. Each member of the commission must occupy at 
least ten to fifteen minutes with each candidate. 

A special written report must be made with reference to the 
examination of each candidate in each branch, and indorsed by each 
member of the commission. 

The judgments are given in the same manner as before. The 
repetition must take place in the next year, and may extend itself 
to all branches of study. 

A second repetition of the examination can only take place with 
the consent of the minister. The written part of the examination 
and the written attests of the examining commission must be placed 
before the minister for approval. The costs of this second examina- 
tion are sixty marks ($15), and the repetitions fifteen marks each. 



THE VETERINARY INSTITUTIONS OF PRUSSIA. 339 

If a candidate retires from the examination, a proportionate part 
of the fees for the sections he has not been examined in will be re- 
turned. 

(The fees for the examination of the military students are paid 
by the war department.) 

Conclusive Judgment. — This is given after the examination in 
all the sections has taken place. It is given by vote, and is influ- 
enced by the judgments obtained in the sectional examinations. 

The judgments are the same as for the sectional examinations. 

The chancellor of the empire is empowered to absolve a can- 
didate from single conditions of the examination upon reasonable 
grounds. 

The names of the graduates are published in the official organ, 
from which these regulations are taken. 

The military students are absolved from the examination in 
horseshoeing, having passed it before entering the school. 

The course is extended over seven sessions (three years and a 
half), and, as the military students must first serve for six months 
in the military school for farriers, their course of study is in reality 
extended over four years. 

The course of study at the veterinary schools of Germany is as 
follows : 

First Session ( Winter). — Introduction to the study of veterinary 
medicine ; physics ; inorganic chemistry ; general zoology ; zootomy ; 
dissection. 

Second Session {Summer). — Organic chemistry ; botany ; zoology 
of the vertebrata ; histology and embryology ; physiology (1) ; chem- 
ical practice in the laboratory ; practical histology. 

Third Session { Winter). — Physiology (2) ; exterior of the domes- 
tic animals ; breeding ; dissection in anatomy ; lectures ; practice in 
the pharmacy ; repetition of lectures in chemistry and physics. 

Fourth Session {Summer)!'— General pathology and therapeutics ; 
pharmacognosy ; pharmacology, toxicology, and practice in the art 
of writing and combining prescriptions ; practice in pharmacy ; 
horseshoeing. 

Fifth Session ( Winter). — Special pathological anatomy ; special 
pathology and therapeutics ; special surgery ; operative surgery, 
with practice ; clinic for large animals ; clinic for small animals. 

Sixth Session {Summer). — Dietetics ; obstetrics ; animal pests, 
veterinary police ; microscopical practice in pathological anatomy ; 
clinics ; visiting clinic. 

Seventh Session { Winter). — Forensic medicine ; history of vet- 



340 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

erinary medicine ; clinics ; visiting clinic ; practice in writing legal 
papers with reference to veterinary police and forensic medicine ; 
repetitions in anatomy and physiology. 

There is room left for an eighth session in the schedule, which 
it is to be hoped will be soon added to the curriculum. 



THE PEUSSIAN LAWS AND REGULATIONS FOR THE 
SUPPRESSION OF CONTAGIOUS ANIMAL DISEASES. 

The first attempt at the organization of a veterinary police, and 
drafting regulations for the suppression of contagious animal dis- 
eases in Prussia, dates back to 1803. It has been the object of 
constant improvement, and it seems that a translation of the prin- 
cipal parts of these laws can not be without value to the people of 
this country. We have nothing in a condensed form to which our 
legislators can refer when drafting regulations for the suppression 
and prevention of contagious animal diseases ; and as these questions 
are sooner or later to take no insignificant part in national legisla- 
tion, their appearance here is justified. 

The supreme supervision of the veterinary institutions of Prussia 
rests with the Minister of Agriculture, who is assisted by a resident 
director, and a board of assistants, composed of lawyers and eminent 
agriculturists. In addition to this there is a veterinary council, the 
duty of which is to give the decisive opinion with reference to all 
technical points in relation to veterinary questions. The active 
members are selected from the teachers at the veterinary school and 
the department veterinarian of Berlin, with Professor Yirchow and 
other eminent medical counsel. 

In Prussia there were (1879) 36 department veterinarians, 12 so- 
called veterinary assessors, who rank higher than the above, 16 fron- 
tier veterinarians, and 407 district veterinarians. These officers have 
fixed remuneration for their official work, and their traveling ex- 
penses ; with the exception of the frontier veterinarians, they are 
almost all permitted to practice ; the latter receive about $800 per 
year, and enjoy no very enviable positions, from the difficulties and 
exposures, as well as the comparative isolation of their positions. 
Each district is further supervised by an " imperial president." The 
department veterinarians are named by the minister, with the advice 
of the council, from among those district veterinarians who have 



RINDERPEST. 341 

especially distinguished themselves in the execution of their duties ; 
the latter have to pass special and severe examinations, both oral 
and written, with reference to the duties required of them at the 
veterinary school : those graduates who have received the two high- 
est judgments, " very good " and " good " as students, are allowed 
to present themselves for examination as district veterinarians in 
two and three years, respectively, from the time of their qualifica- 
tion as veterinarians. 

Attached to the German army as veterinarians are 14 corps and 
523 other veterinarians ; of the latter, each horse regiment has a 
superior veterinarian (" Oberrossarzt "), the others being subject to 
him. The number of civil veterinarians in Prussia (1875) was 1,296 ; 
the territory over which they were each estimated to exercise con- 
trol was 4-75 square geographical miles, and the number of animals 
over which they each were estimated to watch was 1,544 horses, 
4,592 cattle, 14,421 sheep, and 2,192 swine. 

Only those persons that have graduated at a German veterinary 
school are allowed to present themselves to the public as veterina- 
rians. Persons falsely representing themselves as such are punished 
with a fine of 100 thalers ($75), but, if unable to pay this, with con- 
finement in jail for a period of six weeks. 

The Laws and Regulations fob Rinderpest. 

" When this disease breaks out in any of the states composing 
the empire of Germany, or in a country which is in direct connec- 
tion with them, the individual governments of the empire are em- 
powered and required to place in active execution all the regulations 
which are intended to prevent its introduction or further extension 
in the land, as follows : 

" 1. The restriction and prevention of the introduction or trans- 
port or commerce in living or dead cattle, sheep, goats, hides, hair, 
and other raw animal products, in fresh or dried condition ; also raw 
feed, straw, junk, old clothes, harness, stable utensils ; also the exe- 
cution of a stringent frontier quarantine. 

" 2. Quarantining single farms, localities, or districts from inter- 
course with the surrounding country. 

" 3. Killing of all animals, inclusive of healthy ones, and the de- 
struction of all things which may act as vehicles to the infectious ele- 
ments, when disinfection will not be found sufficient for the purpose. 

"4. Disinfection of the buildings, vehicles of transport, and 
other objects, as well as persons, that have been in any relation 
with the diseased animals. 



342 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

" 5. Expropriation of the necessary territory for burying the 
killed animals, and of such things as may act as infectious vehicles, 
and burying the same. 

" Remuneration is given by the state for such animals as may 
be killed by the authorities, and for the land which has been taken, 
and also for the animals of those owners that have given a timely 
notice of suspicion of the disease among the cattle to the authorities ; 
the price to be paid for the same is to be fixed by impartial assessors. 

" This remuneration is, however, not awarded for animals which 
perish from the pest within ten days from the time of its introduc- 
tion, or from the time when the animals introducing it have been 
driven over the frontier. 

" It is the duty of every one who has gained knowledge of the 
outbreak of the disease among animals, or of the death of a single 
one, or even of the suspicion of either, to notify the police officials 
without delay. Any neglect in giving this notice by the owner of 
animals who may have the disease in his stables, shuts him off com- 
pletely from all remuneration for animals which have died of the 
disease or have been killed by the authorities. 

" The residents of pest-infested localities are obliged to support 
the Government officials in the execution of the laws. 

" The railroad companies are obliged to disinfect all cars which 
have been used for the transport of cattle, or other animals, imme- 
diately after using, for such a time as the danger exists of the intro- 
duction of the pest into the land, or while it is present in any part 
of the empire itself. The companies are empowered to charge a 
special fee (twenty-five cents) to the shipper for each wagon used 
for such transport. 

" The government of each state is responsible for the exact 
execution of the foregoing regulations. It is also bound to send in 
official reports to the central Government. 

" The government of each state must at once notify the central 
Government and the other state governments the moment they are 
obliged to forbid the introduction of animals from other countries, 
or when they are obliged to change the regulations, or when they 
declare them ended. 

" The restriction of traffic in animals between the different states 
of the empire is inaugurated when the pest has broken out in any 
single state. 

" "When the pest breaks out in a given state, the central Govern- 
ment is to be at once notified, as well as public notification given 
that the requisite regulations are in force, in an appropriate man- 



RINDERPEST. 343 

i 

ner. The progress of the disease must be frequently reported to 
the central Government. 

" It is the duty of the Chancellor of the Empire to watch over 
the proper execution of these laws. The chancellor is empowered 
to make such special regulations as the urgency of the case may de- 
mand, but must notify the different state governments of the same. 
The different state governments are obliged to support one another 
in the execution of these regulations. 

" The military may be called in to help carry out the regula- 
tions. The central Government pays the expenses of the latter." 

Special Regulations to prevent the Introduction of the Pest from 
Foreign Countries. 

" When the pest breaks out in distant parts of a foreign country 
which is in connection with Germany, either by railroad or canal, 
so that animals could be transported in a short time into the land, 
then all cattle, sheep, swine, or other ruminants from those regions 
are strictly forbidden entrance. This regulation extends to all prod- 
ucts from animals in a fresh condition, with the exception of but- 
ter, milk, and cheese. Traffic may be allowed in completely dried 
hides, wool, hair, and bristles, as well as melted tallow in casks, 
completely dried bones, horns, and claws, which must be entirely 
free from all fleshy parts. 

" Ruminants from non-infested districts of the country in ques- 
tion may be allowed entrance at certain points, fixed by law, under 
the following conditions : 

" (a.) An official attestation must be given that the animals came 
from a place which has been free from the pest for at least thirty 
days, and that no pest rages within a distance of twenty kilometres 
of the place whence they came. 

"(5.) Their transport must have taken place through sections 
entirely free from the pest. 

" (c.) The imported animals must be strictly examined at the 
frontiers by an official veterinarian, and have been found absolutely 
free from all disease. 

" These regulations may be modified when the animals are des- 
tined for a city having a public slaughter-house, and when the rail- 
road connects directly with the same. The importation can only 
take place in each individual case with the consent of the Govern- 
ment, and in each case is to be governed by special police regulations. 

" All that has been said with reference to importation bears equal 
relation to transport through the land, or any portion of it. 



344 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

" "When the pest breaks out in a foreign country, but in the vi- 
cinity of the frontiers : 

" If the outbreak takes place in a region within forty to eighty 
kilometres of the, frontier, the importation of animals and animal 
products, as above, is to be strictly forbidden along the frontier for 
a distance corresponding to the threatened danger. 

" Persons whose occupation brings them in relation with cattle, 
can only pass the frontier at certain places, and must there and then 
be subjected to disinfection. 

" No exception to the above regulations can be made without the 
consent of the Government. 

" When the pest approaches the immediate neighborhood of the 
frontiers, all transport is absolutely forbidden across the borders, 
and a military cordon may be formed for the requisite limit. 

" The passage of passenger trains and posts can only take place 
subject to appropriate regulations. 

" If the quarantine is broken, then all quarantined animals are 
to be immediately killed and buried, as well as articles which may 
serve to spread the disease. 

" Such objects, as well as men, must be at once transferred back 
over the boundaries, if the quarantine has been broken, unless the 
authorities feel confident of the thorough disinfection of the same. 

" The following regulations are to be enforced in all places along 
the threatened frontiers which lie within fifteen kilometres of the 
limits : 

" A cattle-inspector is to be appointed in each village, who must 
make an exact register of all cattle present, and of every change in 
number or locality which takes place. 

" These registers are to be revised weekly by the village authori- 
ties. 

" The authorities are to be at once notified of any case of disease 
among the cattle of a village." 

Regulations with reference to Rinderpest in Germany. 

" As soon as a suspicion of the presence of rinderpest, or the 
death of an animal from it, takes place within the empire, or when 
two cases of death occur with suspicious symptoms within eight 
days, in any place, the regulations for its suppression come into 
force. 

" Under such circumstances the owner of cattle can neither 
slaughter nor kill the sick animals, or bury or remove any that may 
have died, before the nature of the disease has been determined. 



RINDERPEST. 345 

Until the latter has taken place, the dead animals are to be so kept 
that neither men nor animals can come in contact with them. 

" The local police mnst call in the services of a competent vet- 
erinarian as soon as they have been notified of the existence of either 
of the above conditions, in order that the nature of the disease may- 
be determined. If no cadaver is to be had, the authorities may kill 
an animal for the purpose. The results of such examination must 
be reported in writing. 

" If the disease is ascertained to be rinderpest, every effort must 
at once be made to discover the way in which it was introduced. 
The General Government is to be at once notified, as well as the 
public. From this time all control regulations come into action. 

" If there exists but a very strong suspicion of the presence of 
the disease, a temporary quarantining of the infested locality is to be 
ordered, until the presence of the disease is confirmed or the sus- 
picion removed. In doubtful cases a high veterinary official must 
be called in. 

" The exhibition {offering) for sale, or recommendation of pro- 
phylactic or healing remedies for rinderpest, is to be severely pun- 
ished. Disinfection materials are not included in the above. 

" On the outbreak of rinderpest, the holding of cattle-markets 
within a circuit of twenty kilometres of the infested locality is to 
be forbidden ; and, if the circumstances require it, all cattle or other 
markets, or large gatherings of men, are to be forbidden ; also all 
traffic in animals or their products. The animals necessary for food 
can only be sold subject to the control of the veterinary police. 

" In the infested district or locality it becomes the duty of every 
one to notify the authorities of every case of disease, of whatever 
nature, among cattle, with the exception of external injuries. 

" The place (farm or stable) in which the pest has broken out is 
to be isolated and controlled by watchers, who must not enter the 
grounds, or have intercourse with the residents, nor allow any one 
to pass in or out, except those especially legitimatized, nor can any- 
thing, living or dead, be allowed to leave the grounds. The guards 
must be matured individuals, and must wear appropriate badges. 

"No one can enter the grounds except those employed in the 
suppression of the disease, or ministers, doctors, or nurses, when 
necessary to the fulfillment of their occupations. On leaving the 
premises such persons must be subjected to disinfection. Signs 
must be placed upon the boundaries of the premises with ' Rinder- 
pest ' upon them. 

" A relatively local quarantine must be placed over the town or 



346 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

village in which the infected premises are situated. The residents 
of the place may have intercourse with one another, but can not leave 
it except with special permission, and this is only to be granted to 
those who have no connection with cattle. 

" All animals, with the exception of horses, mules, and asses, 
must be confined to their stables ; if found running about free, they 
are to be at once killed. Only the above animals can be used for 
draught or traveling purposes. The removal of all objects, such as 
hay, straw, manure, or other vehicles of infection, is forbidden. 

" When the disease spreads over the greater part of any locality, 
an absolute isolation of the place is to be ordered. It is to be 
surrounded by guards (in this case military), and all forms of in- 
tercourse strictly forbidden among the inhabitants, except that of 
necessary persons about their occupations, such as doctors, etc. 
Schools and public meetings must be forbidden, the beer-houses and 
hotels closed. The streets leading through such a place are to be 
guarded. If the place is located upon a railroad, no trains can be 
stopped there, even though the place be a regular station, unless the 
latter is so situated outside the place that no communication with it 
is possible. 

" All sick or suspected animals are to be at once killed. Cattle 
are always to be considered as ' suspected ' as soon as they have stood 
in the same stable with diseased ones, or have had the same servants, 
drinking-utensils, etc., which have been used about the sick ones. 

" The central powers can order the killing of healthy animals 
when warranted by the circumstances. In large cities, and in 
slaughter-houses which are under the control of the veterinary po- 
lice, the sale of the skins and flesh of cattle which have been found 
healthy in both a living and slaughtered condition may be allowed. 
The slaughtering must take place under the supervision of the vet- 
erinary police, and only in special places. The flesh and inner or- 
gans can only be removed after they have entirely cooled off, and 
the skins when they are completely dried, or have lain in lime- 
water (1 to 60) for three days previously. 

" The animals which have been killed by the authorities are to 
be buried in places distant from the public ways, and where no 
cattle can gain access. Such places are to be fenced in, and to be 
planted with a vegetation which grows rapidly and sends down deep 
roots into the earth. The excavation must be so deep that at least 
six feet of earth lies upon the cadavers. The persons employed in 
this service must be residents of the place, and such as do not own 
cattle themselves, or come in contact with them. When the work 



RINDERPEST. 347 

is completed they must be subjected to disinfection. Horses or men 
must be used for the removal of the cadavers, and the conveyance 
used for this purpose must be thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. 
The animals removed must be so placed upon the vehicles that no 
part of them can touch the ground, or any blood, hair, etc., drop 
from them upon it on the way to the burying-place. The hides of 
the slaughtered animals must be so cut as to destroy their value, 
and the cadavers saturated in crude petroleum or carbolic-acid solu- 
tion. 

" A stable in which diseased animals have lived must be at once 
thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. The manure is to be burned, 
or saturated with disinfectants. Nothing in the stable is to be re- 
moved from it." 

Regulations after the Pest has come to an End. 

" The pest may be considered ended in any locality when all the 
cattle have been killed, or are dead, or when three weeks have 
elapsed since the last case of death, or slaughtering of diseased ani- 
mals, or such as have cohabited with them, and when the thorough 
disinfection of the infested stables has taken place. 

" The disinfection must be begun and executed according to the 
circumstances, so soon as all the animals have been removed. It 
must also take place if all the animals have been killed, though not 
a single case of pest has been found among them. 

" The disinfection can only take place upon official notice, and 
under the supervision of the proper officers. The disinfection be- 
gins with again opening the stable, which must take place within 
twenty-four hours after the removal of the animals, and care must 
be taken to give the air the freest possible circulation. The manure 
is to be carried out and burned, or taken to places where no cattle 
can gain access within the next three months, and deeply buried. 
The fluids in the drains, or yards, are to be disinfected with sulphu- 
ric acid and chloride of lime, and then led into deep holes and cov- 
ered up. The surface of the plastering upon the walls is to be 
scraped off ; the walls must then be whitewashed. The wood-work 
is to be washed with hot potash-water, and, in a few days, washed 
with chloride-of-lime solution. The floor is to be taken out and re- 
placed ; if of earth, dug out one foot deep and replaced with fresh 
earth ; if of pavement, replaced with new, or the old must be com- 
pletely cleansed and disinfected. Wooden floors must be taken out 
and burned, or thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. The cribs, 
utensils, etc., must be cleansed and disinfected. After all this has 



348 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

been done, the stable must be opened freely to the air for fourteen 
consecutive days. In disinfecting, only such persons can be em- 
ployed as have no cattle, or have nothing to do with them. They 
can not leave the premises until the work has been completed, and 
must then change their clothes and be thoroughly disinfected. The 
clothes used by them must be thoroughly washed, etc. 

" Even after complete cleansing and disinfection of an infested 
stable have taken place, and after all restrictions have come to an end 
in the locality, new animals can not be bought and put in them in 
less than three weeks from the time the place was declared pest-free, 
and then only with the consent of the authorities. 

" Grazing-places which have been used or passed over by diseased 
or suspected animals can only be again used after the lapse of at 
least two months. 

" The Government can only give permission to use the places 
which have been taken for the burial of the killed or dead animals. 

" JSTo cattle-markets can be held at such places within three weeks 
from the time they have been declared pest-free." 

Most stringent regulations exist, controlling the disinfection and 
cleansing of freight-cars by the railroad companies every time they 
have been used for the transport of any species of domestic animals. 
This cleansing must take place under the supervision of a state 
official. The disinfection must be effected either — 1. By means of 
scalding-hot water, after thorough cleansing ; 2. By scalding-hot 
water and caustic potash — 500 grammes to 100 litres of water ; 3. 
Or, by other disinfectants which are acknowledged as sufficient by 
the Government. 

All utensils, unloading-platforms, etc., must also be subjected to 
the same course. 

The Prussian Regulations for the Suppression of Anthrax; 
the Foot-and-Mouth Disease of Cattle, Sheep, and Swine ; 
the Contagious Pleuro-pneumonia of Cattle ; Glanders of 
the Horse, Mule, and Ass ; the Yariola of Sheep ; the 
Genital Disease of Horses and Cattle (" Maladie du 
Coit ") ; Scabies of the Horse and Sheep, and Rabies of 
all Domestic Animals. 

Of the Notification of their Presence, or the Suspicion of the same. 

" The owner of domestic animals is obliged to at once notify the 

local police authorities of an outbreak of either of the above diseases 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 349 

in his stables, and of all suspicious phenomena which justify the ex- 
pectation of the presence of such a disease. 

" The same responsibility rests with those intrusted by the owner 
with the care of the animals ; further, those persons who accompany 
animals in transit; and especially is this the case when strange 
animals are intrusted to their care and introduced into the stables, 
yards, or pastures of the owner. 

" Veterinary surgeons, and all those persons who make a prac- 
tice of treating the diseases of animals, inclusive of those employed 
at knacker establishments, are obliged, under penalty of the law, to 
notify the proper authorities, either of the outbreak of any of the 
named diseases, or of the appearance of any phenomena which at 
all justify a suspicion of their existence. 

" It is the duty of the local police to at once notify the official 
veterinarian, when they have received notification, or in any other 
way acquired knowledge, of the outbreak of an animal pest, or of 
the suspicion of its existence, in order to have a technical opinion 
upon the same. 

" The state veterinarian must ascertain, and report in writing, 
the nature, condition, and cause of the disease, and plainly state 
whether it is an infectious disease or only a suspicious case. 

" In peremptory cases, the veterinary official may at once pro- 
ceed, without waiting for authority from the police authorities, and 
order the immediate quarantining and isolation of the diseased or sus- 
pected animals, and in necessary cases appoint a guard over the same. 

" When this is the case, the causes for action must be given by 
the veterinary official in writing to the owner, or his representa- 
tives, as well as to the local police authority. 

" The selectman, or other supervising officer of the town or local- 
ity, must order the temporary guarding of the infected or suspected 
stable, or locality, upon requisition of the official veterinarian. 

" In order to confirm a suspicion, the local police authorities 
may condemn and slaughter a suspected animal ; the results of the 
autopsy must be reduced to writing (upon the official blanks) by the 
state veterinarian. If the presence of a contagious disease is con- 
firmed, the police have to at once order the execution of the neces- 
sary regulations, and give notice thereof according to the prescribed 
forms. 

" The owner may also call in the services of an approved veteri- 
narian in all those cases where a suspected animal is condemned 
and killed by the authorities, in order to establish the true nature 
of the disease. 



350 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

"In those cases where a difference of opinion as to the nature 
of the disease in question exists between the veterinarian of the 
police and that of the owner, the police may call in the services of 
a department veterinarian, who must make his report in writing ; 
the opinion of the latter is decisive, and the police must proceed ac- 
cordingly. 

" Official veterinarians have to supervise all cattle and horse 
markets, or all gatherings where animals are brought for the pur- 
pose of sale or barter. 

" The district veterinary authorities are authorized to extend the 
same regulations to cattle, horse, or animal fairs or exhibitions." 

It is the duty of the veterinarian to at once notify the police, in 
all cases, of the presence or suspicion of infectious or contagious dis- 
eases among animals so collected, which is to be followed by order- 
ing into action the appropriate regulations. If there is danger in 
delay, the veterinarian is authorized to anticipate the action of the 
police by isolating and guarding the diseased or suspected animals. 
The expenses of the supervision of cattle and horse markets or fairs 
by the official veterinarian must be borne by the directors of the 
same. 

Restriction of the Travel or Use of Animals. 

" The isolation, guarding, or police supervision of an animal, or 
animals, affected with a contagious disease, or in which such is sus- 
pected. The owner of such an animal is obliged (upon demand) 
to make such arrangements that it can not leave its confinement 
while under observation, and that it is kept free from all contact 
with other animals. 

" Restrictions as to use, or the transport of diseased or suspected 
animals, or the products from the same, or of such objects as have 
been in relation with the diseased or suspected animals, which may 
give rise to the extension of the disease. 

" The use of common grazing-grounds is to be forbidden ani- 
mals from different stables ; further, the use of common drinking- 
places, and all intercourse between diseased or suspected animals in 
any way. 

" Dogs are forbidden to run about free. 

"When the official veterinarian has proven the presence of 
a contagious disease, the stables, farms, villages, or localities in 
which said animals are kept may be, according to circumstances, 
subjected to quarantine, so that no connection may be had with 
them, or with objects which could serve as vehicles of the infec- 
tious elements. The quarantine can only extend to a town, or vil- 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 351 

lage, or district, when the nature of the pest is such as to threaten 
with danger the greater number of the animals (of a susceptible 
species) of the locality. The owner is obliged to do all in his power 
to support the execution of the regulations." 

Inoculation. — " The inoculation of animals exposed to infec- 
tion can only take place in those cases allowed by law, and under 
the prescribed restrictions. The inoculation can only take place 
under the observation of the state veterinarian." 

Anthrax. — Charbon. 

"When the presence of anthrax has been determined in the 
manner fixed by law, or when there is reason to fear an exten- 
sion of the disease, the police authorities are empowered to put in 
action the regulations for its suppression without waiting, in each 
case, for the opinion of the state veterinarian." 

Regulations against its Extension. — " The police authorities 
and the state veterinarians are obliged to make known to the 
owners, and those persons who have the care of, or that may 
come in contact with, animals diseased with anthrax, the danger 
which always exists of its transmission to human beings, and to 
warn them to have care in their relation with such animals. 

" In the stables where such animals are, care must be taken that 
the proper disinfectants are always on hand for the use of persons 
who have the sick animals in charge. 

" The sick animals must be at once isolated from the healthy 
ones, and the stables quarantined. It is the duty of owners of the 
animals to make such arrangements as will insure the complete car- 
rying out of the above regulation, so that no contact can take place 
between healthy animals and the sick ones, their excretions, or the 
utensils used about them. ]STo other persons than those engaged in 
the care of the sick animals must be allowed admittance to the 
stables. The stables in which the sick animals are isolated must 
be kept dark, so as to keep flies away, and daily subjected to a slight 
fumigation with chlorine-gas. 

"When the disease acquires a pest-like extension, the local 
authorities are authorized to subject all the animals in the infected 
place, or places, of the same species as those infected, to stable 
quarantine. It is the duty of the owners to support this regula- 
tion. The quarantining may be limited to single divisions of the 
animals in question, when the official veterinarian considers such a 
course warranted by the circumstances. The sick animals, in such 
cases, are to be isolated in special stables from the healthy ones. 



352 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

" All slaughtering of the diseased or suspected animals, or the 
sale or use of any parts of the same, the milk, flesh, or hair, is to be 
forbidden. All those animals are to be considered as suspicious 
which have been in relation with diseased ones within a period of 
four days. The performance of surgical operations upon animals 
diseased with anthrax, or in which the same is suspected, can only 
be made by approved veterinarians, and after the diseased or sus- 
pected animals have been carefully isolated. 

" The cadavers of anthrax-diseased animals, or of such as have 
been killed, can only be opened by approved veterinarians, and 
then only with the consent of the police. Skinning of the cadavers 
is to be strictly forbidden. Until the cadavers have been thor- 
oughly destroyed, they must be kept isolated and securely covered 
with earth, straw, or some such material, and carefully guarded, so 
that other animals, and especially flies and insects, can not come in 
contact with them. 

" The regulations herein mentioned in the first part are not to 
be applied to such animals as are subject to the control of the state 
veterinary schools or academies, where they are kept for the pur- 
poses of such institutions. 

" The cadavers are to be destroyed as quickly as possible, when 
convenient by chemicals or by burning ; but, when this is not the 
case, by deep burying, after the hide has been so cut as to destroy 
its value. The flesh is to be spoiled by saturation with petroleum, 
tar, or some such material. The place of burial is to be determined 
by the local police. The cadavers can only be transported in closed 
wagons, or so covered that no part of the body is exposed, and so 
that no dropping of blood or excretions can take place. The burial- 
places must be dug out so deep that at least six feet of earth lies 
upon the cadavers. "When the latter are covered with lime, the 
holes need be no deeper than to permit of three feet of earth cover- 
ing the cadavers. The burial-places must be paved with stone, and 
must remain in this condition for a period of three years ; where 
this is impossible, they must be so inclosed that no animals can gain 
access to them. During this time such places must not be used 
either for agricultural or grazing purposes. These last regulations 
have equal relation to wild animals which have perished or been 
killed from anthrax. 

" Excrements, blood, and other refuse from animals diseased 
with or which have died of anthrax, as well as the manure, hay, and 
straw in their stalls, must be either burned or buried. "When the 
disease acquires an enzootic extension, a weekly examination of the 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 353 

animals in the infected locality may be ordered by the police ; it 
must be performed by a state veterinarian. When the invasion is 
ended, the police have to see that proper cleansing and disinfection 
of the premises take place. 

" The action of the above regulations ceases — 

" 1. In isolated cases, when the diseased animals have recovered 
or are dead or have all been killed, the cadavers removed, and the 
locality thoroughly cleansed and disinfected. 

" 2. In enzootic outbreaks, when fourteen days have elapsed 
since the last diseased animal died or has been killed, and after 
cleansing and disinfection have taken place according to law." 

The "Fooirand-Mouih Disease " of Cattle, Sheep, Goats, and Swine. 

" When an outbreak of this disease has been confirmed under 
conditions which threaten its rapid extension among the above- 
named species of our domestic animals, the police may at once order 
into action the necessary protective regulations without, in every 
case, waiting for the opinion of the state veterinarian. 

" The police authorities must notify the public, in the manner 
fixed by law, of the first outbreak of this disease among the animals 
of a district. At the same time they must warn the people against 
the danger of infection from the consumption of uncooked milk 
from diseased animals. 

" The infected localities must be made known to the public by 
means of inscriptions, ' Foot-and-Mouth Disease,' at prominent 
points. 

" The police must place the following restrictions upon the 
owner and inhabitants of the infected localities : The diseased ani- 
mals — swine, sheep, and cattle — or such as are in the stables with 
them, must be restricted to the same. Healthy animals of the above 
species from non-infected stables maybe used for agricultural pur- 
poses. But they can not leave the grounds of the owner without 
special permission from the police, which, as a rule, is not to be 
withheld when the animals to be removed are to be at once slaugh- 
tered. Until the invasion has been declared at an end, the manure 
from the infected farm can not be removed across or upon ways 
which are passed over by animals of the same species from other 
farms or places. 

" Eaw food can not be removed from the infected stables. Hides 
can only be removed in a completely dried condition. The owner 
can not allow strangers, or persons uninterested in the care of the 
sick animals, into the stable ; and also must have care that those 

23 



354: PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

persons having the sick animals in charge do not leave the place 
without first washing their hands, and changing the clothing and 
shoes they have used about them. Dealers in animals and butchers 
are forbidden to enter the infected grounds. 

" The grazing of the sick animals, or those in the stable with 
them, is to be forbidden when the situation of the fields is such that 
grazing them is connected with danger of the extension of the dis- 
ease to other animals. The sick animals and those with them may 
be confined to their stables by the police, when it is impossible for 
the owner to comply with the restrictions necessary to the preven- 
tion of the disease extending. 

" The sale of the milk in an uncooked condition for human con- 
sumption is forbidden. 

" When the disease has acquired an enzootic extension, all animal 
markets, except those for horses, are to be forbidden in the locality, 
and, when the circumstances require it, in adjoining localities. In 
such cases the police may forbid ruminants being driven through 
the streets of the infected district. The removal of these animals 
from them can only take place with the consent of the authorities. 
This permission shall not be denied when the animals are from non- 
infected stables, and are destined for immediate slaughter. In these 
cases the removal of manure can only take place from the infected 
stables under the control of the police. Signs bearing upon them 
' Foot-and-Mouth Disease ' must be placed upon the roads approach- 
ing the infected district. 

" When the disease appears among animals at grass, the police 
must make such restrictions and post such guards that animals from 
these herds can not be driven off or others upon the infected pas- 
tures. When this is impossible, the diseased animals must be re- 
moved to places where they can be properly confined, and the graz- 
ing-places isolated or plowed up with horses. Such grazing-places 
must be indicated with the previously mentioned inscriptions. 
Strangers and cattle-dealers are to be kept distant from them. 

" When the disease appears among droves or animals in the way 
of transport, it is the duty of the police to prevent the droves being 
driven farther, and the animals quarantined. 

" It is the duty of the authorities to see that the infected stables 
or fields are properly cleansed and disinfected when the disease has 
been declared at an end. 

" The disease may be declared at an end when no new case 
transpired within fourteen days from the healing, or removal of the 
last case in the infected localities, and when the cleansing, etc., has 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 355 

been carried out according to law. The termination of the disease 
is to be made known to the public in the appropriate organs." 

Contagious Pleuro-pneumonia of Cattle. 

" The investigations of the official veterinarian with reference to 
an outbreak of this disease must take place (as a rule) in the pres- 
ence of the head man of the locality, or of an officer detailed by the 
local police for that purpose. 

" If the existence of the disease is proven, or if strong suspi- 
cions of the same exist, it is the duty of the veterinarian to as- 
certain how long the suspicious phenomena have been noticed, if 
the diseased or suspected animal has been in relation with other 
cattle, if animals have been recently slaughtered from the same sta- 
ble or farm, or removed, when and where the suspected animal was 
bought, and who the former owner was. The results of this ex- 
amination are to be at once communicated to the police and the local 
officers, in order that they may put the necessary laws in execution. 
If the corresponding police regulations have not been ordered, and 
the police representative was not present at the examination, it is 
the duty of the official veterinarian to at once order a preliminary 
separation and isolation of the diseased and suspected animals. It is 
also the duty of the veterinarian to notify the owner or his represent- 
ative in writing of these regulations. In necessary cases the official 
veterinarian can require the presence of the head man of the town." 

The Regulations in Case of Suspicion. — " The cattle of a farm 
(or locality) which has been heretofore free from the disease are sub- 
ject to the police observation when it has been confirmed; that, 
among the cattle, individuals are found which have been in re- 
lations with animals having this disease within the last eight weeks ; 
when the cattle in which the disease was suspected, before the 
official examination, have been slaughtered, removed, or otherwise 
done away with. The police have to make a memorandum of 
the number and characteristics (marks) of the animals in the sus- 
pected locality, and to make such regulations that the owner or 
his representative can not remove any cattle without the permission 
of the police. It is the duty of the police to see that these regu- 
lations are executed. 

" After the lapse of four weeks, the police must order the offi- 
cial veterinarian to make a second supervision of the cattle in the 
suspected locality. 

" If the official veterinarian can not at the time positively assert 
that the disease exists among the animals, but if the examination 



356 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

has confirmed the existence of suspicious phenomena which justify 
the fear that an outbreak of the disease may take place, it is the 
duty of the police to subject the stable to quarantine. The other 
cattle of the place must be confined to the limits of the owner's 
property. ISTo cattle can be removed from the place, nor can food 
materials be removed which may endanger the extension of the dis- 
ease. The police may allow those animals which have not been 
quarantined in the stable to be used for work in the fields of the 
owner, or to graze when the fields or the ways to them are so situ- 
ated that the cattle of other owners can not possibly be exposed to in- 
fection. These regulations come to an end when the official veteri- 
narian declares that suspicious phenomena no longer exist." 

In case the disease comes to an outbreak : " When the disease 
has been confirmed, it is the duty of the police to give public no- 
tice of the same in an appropriate manner. The infected locali- 
ties are to be made known by inscriptions, ' Pleuro-pneumonia,' 
being placed at prominent places. 

" All the diseased or suspected animals must be discovered as 
soon as possible. All cattle in the infected locality (farm or stable) 
are to be looked upon as suspicious, inclusive of those which are 
found in isolated stables. It is the duty of the police to kill at once 
all animals which the official veterinarian shall pronounce diseased. 
If a perfectly secure isolation is possible, the police may restrain 
the above proceedings for a period of fourteen days, if the owner 
urgently requests it. The suspected animals at the infected farms 
must be subjected to quarantine. The removal of cattle or food 
from such farms must be forbidden so far as there is danger of the 
extension of the disease, though they may be used for work if such 
can be done under proper restrictions. If the disease acquires a 
considerable extension in a district, no cattle are to be allowed to be 
driven from it, or introduced into it. In such case the holding of 
cattle-markets must be forbidden, and, in necessary cases, in neigh- 
boring places also. 

" If the disease breaks out among cattle which are constantly 
kept upon pastures, it is the duty of the police to order the diseased 
animals killed ; such places must be so guarded that no cattle can 
be driven on or from them. Such pastures must be indicated by 
appropriate signs. If it is impossible to isolate such pastures, then 
the remaining cattle must be removed to more suitable quarters. If 
the disease is found among droves, or in cattle on the cars or in 
canal-boats or other means of transport, then the police have to 
order the diseased ones killed, and the remainder isolated. 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 357 

"In order that the slaughtering of suspected or quarantined 
cattle may immediately take place, the police are permitted to allow 
their removal by rail or other closed conveyance, to such slaughter- 
ing-places as are under the control of the state. This can only take 
place where no possibility exists of their coming in contact with 
other cattle. In such cases the police must give timely notice of 
the arrival of the suspected cattle. The cattle must be slaughtered 
subject to the supervision of an official veterinarian. This liberty 
is not extended to already diseased animals. 

" If suspected animals are removed in opposition to the above 
regulations, or found in places where they have been forbidden, it 
is the duty of the police to kill them at once. Animals which are 
condemned to be killed by the authorities must be slaughtered 
under their inspection within the limits of the place (farm, etc.) 
where they are found. The lungs of the slaughtered, and bodies of 
those animals which have died, must be destroyed. They may be 
skinned upon the named grounds. The flesh of the slaughtered 
cattle can be removed after it has been cooled off. The hides can 
only be removed from such places after they have become com- 
pletely dried, unless they are directly delivered at a tannery. 

" The cleansing and disinfection of the infected stables must be 
controlled by the police, and must take place before the restrictive 
regulations are relaxed. The police and veterinary official must re- 
turn reports with reference to the execution of the laws. 

" The disease is to be declared at an end when all the cattle have 
died or been condemned to slaughter ; when all the sick cattle have 
been removed, and no new case has occurred within four months 
from the last case of disease ; when no case of disease has shown 
itself among the cattle of the infected locality for a period of three 
months after the last possible infection could have taken place. No 
cattle can be removed from such places, save for the purpose of im- 
mediate slaughter, until after the lapse of six months. 

" The police are to notify the public' that the invasion is ended, 
after the disinfection has been properly effected." 

Glanders. 

" The examination of animals (horse, mule, ass) by the official 
veterinarian must take place, as a rule, in the presence of the head 
man of the place, or a special representative of the police. If the 
presence of the disease is confirmed, or if there is a strong sus- 
picion of the same, it is the duty of the veterinarian to ascertain 
how long the suspicious phenomena have been noticed, if horses have 



358 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

been lately sold from the place, or removed ; if the diseased or sus- 
pected animals have been in relation with other horses ; if so, where 
the same were bought, and from whom. The results of this exami- 
nation are to be at once communicated in writing to the local police 
and the head man of the place, in order that the requisite regulations 
may be placed in operation. 

" If the regulations are not yet in active operation, and the rep- 
resentative of the police was not present at the examination, it is the 
peremptory duty of the official veterinarian to at once separate and 
isolate the diseased or suspected horse. The veterinarian must also 
at once notify the owner, or his representative, of these restric- 
tions. A memorandum must at once be taken of the character- 
istics and appearance of the diseased and suspected animals, and of 
those horses which, although not yet diseased, have been in rela- 
tion with them and others exposed to infection. The papers are to 
be at once sent to the police, so that the regulations may be put in 
force." 

Protective Regulations. — " The public are to be notified by the 
police in the usual manner. This notice may be dispensed with in 
places of over 50,000 inhabitants with the consent of the Minister of 
Agriculture." 

When Glanders is proven. — " If the presence of the disease is 
confirmed in a horse, it is to be at once killed. It must be done in 
some isolated place. In the transport to such a locality care must 
be taken that the diseased animal does not come in contact with 
others of the same species." 

When the Suspicion of Glanders exists. — " In the following 
cases the suspected animals may be killed : 

" (a.) When it can be proved that the suspected animals have 
been in relation with diseased ones. 

" (h.) When a suspicious nasal outflow, hard and swollen glands, 
especially the intermaxillary space, suspicious nodules in the skin, 
suspicious tumefaction of one or more limbs exists ; especially when 
one or more of these phenomena are present at the same time ; or 
when, at the same time, difficulty of respiration or staring hair is 
present with some of these phenomena. 

" (c.) "When, after the lapse of three months, the isolated horse 
can not be declared free from suspicion by the official veterinarian. 

" (d.) When suitable room can not be afforded for the isolation 
of the suspected horse, or when other reasons exist to render inse- 
cure the danger of further extension of the disease. 

" When, in the above cases, the owner desires the animal to be at 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 359 

once killed, and this regulation is in the public interest, it is the 
duty of the police to comply therewith. 

" If the isolated horses are used contrary to the restrictions, or 
found in places forbidden them, they are to be at once killed. 

" Horses in which suspicious phenomena have been diagnosti- 
cated must be subjected to stable quarantine until killed, or until they 
are declared free from suspicion by the official veterinarian. The 
owner must supply the necessary conveniences for such a purpose. 
Such animals can not be removed from the stable without the con- 
sent of the police. The grooms appointed to the care of the isolated 
horses must be made aware of the danger of the transmission of the 
disease to mankind. They must be forbidden any interference with 
other horses, and must not be allowed to sleep in the infected sta- 
ble. The racks, utensils, and other objects in the quarantined stable 
can not be removed except with the permission of the police. If 
necessary, such objects should be appropriately branded." 

Horses in which Infection is to T>e suspected. — " All horses 
which have stood in the same stable with glandered or suspected 
animals, or which have been in relation with them, but in which 
at the time no suspicious phenomena are perceptible, are to be 
isolated in special stables by the police. These horses must be sub- 
jected to inspection by the official veterinarian every fourteen days. 
This regulation is not to be applied to large towns or cities where 
several approved veterinarians reside, when the owner brings the 
horses in question to the veterinarian every eight days for examina- 
tion ; the officer is to report to the police, in writing, the results of 
each examination. So soon as a suspicion of glanders is confirmed, 
the horse is to be at once confined and isolated. So long as the 
horses thus subjected to observation are considered healthy, they 
may be allowed to be used within the limits of the place in ques- 
tion. Special permission from the police is necessary when the 
horse is to be taken outside the limits of the place ; this can only be 
given when the use required of the horse is of such a nature that it 
is not necessary to put him up in any other stable or shed. Such 
police control is to be extended over at least three months. During 
this period, the horse in question must not be brought into other 
stables, or farms, or places, than those indicated by the police. If 
such permission is given, the police control must be extended to 
such places. If the police regulations are not strictly followed by 
the owner, the horse is to be immediately quarantined in its stable. 
It is the duty of the local police to see that the official veterinarian 
subjects the quarantined horses to an examination at least once a 



360 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

month. If the disease extends, if circumstances exist which make 
such an extension probable, the police may order a special supervis- 
ion, by the official veterinarian, of all the horses owned in the place. 

" The cadavers of horses diseased with glanders are to be either 
chemically destroyed, or buried after the skin has been so cut as to 
utterly destroy its value. The burial-places must be so deep that 
at least four feet of earth covers the buried bodies. The selection of 
the burial-place rests with the police. These regulations are not 
applicable to horses at veterinary schools or other government es- 
tablishments, where they are required for educational or experi- 
mental purposes. The disinfection and cleansing of stables in which 
diseased animals have stood must take place under police super- 
vision. A record of the same must be kept in writing. 

" The disease is declared at an end when all glanders-diseased or 
suspected horses are dead, or when the latter have been declared 
free by the veterinarian of the state. When no suspicious phenom- 
ena have presented themselves during the course of the police con- 
trol. When the cleansing and disinfection have been performed 
and attested to. 

" It is the duty of the police to make this known to the public 
in the usual manner. This publication is not necessary in the large 
cities and towns, where the presence of the disease, or its suspicion, 
is not made public." 

Variola Ovina. 

" The outbreak of this disease in a flock of sheep is to be made 
known, without delay, by the police, in the usual manner. The in- 
fected place is to be indicated by appropriate inscriptions at promi- 
nent points. The police have at the same time to quarantine all the 
sheep at the infected locality. So far as circumstances will allow, 
the visibly diseased are to be isolated from the apparently healthy 
sheep. The owner of the sheep has to supply the proper conven- 
iences for this purpose, and assist in carrying out the regulations. 
The passage of such quarantined sheep to the pastures is only to be 
permitted when the situation and nature of the pastures are such as 
to forbid the extension of the disease, or such that police regula- 
tions can attain this end." 

The owner of the sheep has also to comply with the following 
regulations : 

" The removal of the manure from infected stables in such ways 
or to such places that it would endanger the infection of sheep 
from other places is to be forbidden, unless this danger can be 
obviated by other police regulations. Hay and straw from the in- 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 361 

fected stables can not be removed. Shepherds and other persons 
who have been in relation with the diseased sheep can not be em- 
ployed in the care of those of other owners, or other sheep which 
are not diseased. They can only leave the place after careful wash- 
ing and change of clothing. Strangers and butchers must not be 
admitted to the infected stables. Common washing-places can not 
be used for the diseased sheep. Diseased sheep can only be washed 
by persons who are to be forbidden coming in relation with other 
sheep within the succeeding ten days. The wool from such sheep 
can only be removed from the place when closely packed, and then 
only with the permission of the police. 

" Sheep are to be placed under police observation in those cases 
where an outbreak of the disease can not be securely determined, 
but when the official veterinarian declares the case to be decidedly 
suspicious. This observation is to be given up when, after the lapse 
of fourteen days, the official veterinarian declares that no suspicious 
phenomena have been seen in the sheep. 

"When the situation of the individual outbreak is such that a 
complete isolation of the diseased sheep is pronounced impossible 
for any length of time, or when the general interest demands the 
speediest possible termination of the outbreak, it becomes the duty 
of the police to occasion the speediest possible inoculation of all the 
sheep in the district. The police must strictly attend to the neces- 
sary restrictions. Such inoculations can only take j)lace under the 
supervision of an official veterinarian. 

"When the disease breaks out in flocks in transit, they are 
to be at once subjected to quarantine. ~No inoculation of sheep 
by owners can take place without the consent of the police. The 
notification of such intention must be handed in at least eight 
days before the inoculation is to take place. The district police 
must at once notify the public that such inoculation is to take place, 
and, so far as the district is not under their control, they must notify 
the neighboring police of the fact. The above-given regulations are 
then to be applied to the inoculated sheep in the same manner as if 
the disease had broken out in a natural way. 

" The slaughtering of such diseased sheep for human consump- 
tion is forbidden. 

" The cadavers of sheep which have died, or been killed, on ac- 
count of variola, must be chemically destroyed, or, where this is 
impossible, buried. The burial-places must be so deep that at least 
four feet of earth lies upon the bodies. Such sheep may be 
skinned, but the skins can not be removed except with the permis- 



362 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

sion of the police, and then only when perfectly dry, or for direct 
delivery to a tannery. 

" The infected stables or pens must be cleansed and disinfected 
according to law. 

" The disease may be declared as ended when the official veteri- 
narian has declared all the sheep at the infected place free from the 
disease. 

" The regulations are, however, to be held in force for two 
months after the disease has been declared as ended. Sheep in full 
wool can only be removed from such places after four months from 
the time the disease was declared at an end. At the cessation of 
all restrictions, the same must be made known by the police in the 
usual way." 

Babies of the Domestic Animals. 

Dogs. — " Dogs in which signs of rabies appear, or which indicate 
suspicious phenomena, must either be at once killed by the owner 
or those having them in charge, or be placed in secure confinement 
until the police have determined what is to be done with them. 

" "When a human being or an animal is bitten by a dog which is 
suspected as being rabid, or been in any relation with such, which 
renders infection probable, the suspected dog is not to be hilled, but 
be safely secured, when such can be done without further danger, 
until the police decide upon the course to take. 

" The transport of a dog in which rabies is suspected, with the 
purpose of confinement, must take place in a closed vehicle, or the 
dog must be securely muzzled and well chained with two chains be- 
tween two conductors. 

" It is the duty of the local police to immediately cause the ex- 
amination of a dog suspected of rabies by an official veterinarian, 
or, when time would be lost in waiting for the attendance of the 
latter, by an approved veterinarian. 

" If there is a well-founded suspicion that the suspected dog had 
been in relation with a rabid or suspected dog, the dog must be se- 
curely confined and watched for a period of six days, if the exami- 
nation of the veterinarian does not at once confirm the suspicion. 
If the dog lives over this time, and no suspicious phenomena ap- 
pear, he is to be discharged. 

" If a dog suspected of rabies is at once killed, or if it dies during 
confinement, it is the duty of the police to order a post-mortem ex- 
amination by an official veterinarian, if there has been any proba- 
bility of men or animals having been bitten by the same, or if the 
said dog has been roaming over the country. 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 363 

" If the presence of the disease is confirmed, it is the duty of the 
police to make it known to the public in the usual way. Dogs in 
which the disease has been diagnosed, must be at once killed. It 
is further the duty of the police to at once kill all dogs which have 
been bitten by the rabid dog, as well as such as have been in rela- 
tion with it so as to render the possibility of infection imminent. 

" When a rabid or suspected dog is known to be freely running 
over a section of the country, it is the duty of the police to order all 
other dogs in the district securely confined. All places in which 
the rabid or suspected dog has been seen are to be looked upon as 
dangerous, as well as a territory extending four kilometres be- 
yond them. If the suspicion is unfounded, the confined dogs are 
again to be freed from the restriction; if, on the contrary, the 
suspicion becomes confirmed, the restrictions are to be extended 
over a period of at least three months. If dogs are found free in 
opposition to these restrictions, they may be at once killed by the 
police. In such places where dogs are obliged to wear muzzles, 
these restrictions need not be called into force. These restrictions 
are further not to be extended to dogs which are used for draught, 
when they are firmly harnessed to wagons, and are securely muzzled ; 
shepherds may also be allowed to use their dogs. So long as the 
disease has acquired no considerable extension, dogs may be used 
for the purpose of hunting, on the condition that they be securely 
muzzled and led by chains or strong cords, at all times and places 
except those where they are hunted." 

Cats. — These are to be killed. 

Other Domestic Animals. — " Other animals which have been 
bitten or in such relation with a rabid or suspected dog as to render 
infection probable, must be placed under technical observation for 
the time fixed by law, unless the owner prefers to kill them. The 
duration of this observation is, for horses, three months ; cattle, 
four months ; sheep, goats, and swine, two months. So long as the 
animals are pronounced healthy by the official veterinarian, they 
may be used for work. But if they display phenomena which serve 
to confirm the suspicion of rabies, it is the duty of the owner to 
notify the police thereof. The latter have to order the examination 
of the animal in question by an official veterinarian ; if he confirms 
the suspicion, the animal is to be confined to its stable. If the dis- 
ease becomes confirmed, the animal is to be killed by order of the 
police. ]STo attempt at treatment can be undertaken under penalty 
of the law." 

Regulations with reference to all Animals. — " No rabid animals 



364 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

are to be slaughtered, skinned, or used in any manner, nor is the 
milk or other parts of them to be sold. The cadavers of animals 
which have died or been killed on account of rabies are to be either 
chemically destroyed, or, after the skin has been destroyed, buried. 
Autopsies upon such cadavers can only be made by approved veteri- 
narians. It is the duty of the police to select the spot where such 
dogs shall be buried, or otherwise destroyed. The straw of the 
kennels, wooden utensils used about them, and wooden dog-kennels 
must be burned. Stall-utensils of other animals which have been 
rabid, and killed, must be cleaned with hot lye-water. Iron utensils 
must be highly heated. The stables must be cleansed, the walls and 
floors cleansed with hot lye-water and chloride of lime." 

Disinfectants. 

' ' Potash and Soda. — Potash-lye is to be prepared by cooking 
one part crude potash with ten of water, and by adding gradually 
one part of slaked lime. Instead of potash, four times the quantity 
of wood-ashes may be used. Soda-lye is to be prepared in the same 
manner. These preparations are more suitable for cleansing wood- 
work. 

" Freshly-slaked lime is to be used in a dry form for covering 
cadavers, or as lime-water for washing over walls, mixing with ma- 
nure or other refuse. Hides may be disinfected by placing them in 
a strained solution of one part lime to sixty or eighty water. 

" Common Salt and Saltpeter. — Hides, flesh, intestines, bones, 
horns, claws, etc., may be treated with these salts, by laying them 
in layers or piles thoroughly mixed with them, or by placing them 
in a strong solution of the same. 

" Chlorine may be used in different ways : 

" As gas, in the disinfection of stables. Gas is easily and quickly 
prepared by pouring double the weight of muriatic acid upon chlo- 
ride of lime, or equal parts of sulphuric acid upon the same. Or it 
can be prepared by pouring strong (commercial) muriatic acid upon 
a quantity of small pieces of peroxide of manganese, or by pouring 
strong sulphuric acid upon a powdered mixture of three parts com- 
mon salt and two of peroxide of manganese. A solution of chlo- 
ride of lime can be made by mixing one part of the same with ten 
of water. 

" Hypermanganate of potash and soda are mixed with water, 
and four to five per cent solutions used for washing the hands, in- 
struments, etc. 

" Carholie acid is not to be used where animals destined for 



ANTHRAX, ETC. 365 

slaughter or milk purposes are being kept, on account of its pene- 
trating odor. It is only soluble in water to two per cent, but a com- 
plete solution is unnecessary for disinfection purposes. In the dis- 
infection of wooden or iron objects, a mixture of the crude acid 
with four to six parts water or oil is sufficient. Coal-tar or wood- 
tar also act as fair disinfectants at times. 

" Heat. — Dry heat in closed rooms, when the temperature has 
been raised to 70° C, makes a very good disinfectant for clothing, 
wool, hair, bones, etc. 

" Hot water and steam are valuable in destroying the germs of 
infection. 

" Fire is to be used to destroy contaminated wood-work, and 
cleansing various iron utensils. 

" A free exposure for a long time to the circulating atmosphere 
is often valuable in so widely dispersing the infectious elements as 
to nullify their action." 

Disinfection with Reference to the Different Contagious or Infec- 
tious Animal Diseases. 

Anthrax. — " The infectious elements of this disease possess a 
great degree of tenacity. They are not securely destroyed by des- 
iccation, or by the dry dissolution of the cadaver in the earth. 
Chemicals used in disinfection must be of the strongest concentra- 
tion. Great heat, chloride of lime, and freshly-slaked lime (thick) 
are among the best. The bedding and manure of diseased animals 
must be burned. Blood or other fluid elements from the diseased 
animals must be treated with chloride of lime or freshly-burned 
lime ; four or five per cent Carbolic acid solutions are suitable for 
the disinfection of the hands, instruments, etc. 

Foot- and- Mouth Disease. — "The infectious elements are quite 
movable and easily destroyed ; therefore, the disinfection of infected 
stables may be limited to a thorough cleaning. 

Contagious Pleuropneumonia. — " The infectious elements are 
movable, and come from the diseased lungs with the expired air, 
filling the atmosphere around the diseased animals, and being again 
taken up by the others in the stable. "Where the nature of the 
conditions will allow it, the stables are to be treated with weak 
chlorine-gas ; this is not necessary with animals at the public 
slaughter-houses. In stables where the hay and straw are situ- 
ated over diseased cattle, the superficial parts must be careful- 
ly removed, and not used for feeding cattle after the diseased 
ones have been removed. Stables in which only animals that have 



366 PRUSSIAN REGULATIONS FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

gone through with the disease are confined, do not require disin- 
fection." 

Glanders. — " The infectious elements retain their vitality a long 
time, and are very tenacious. Stables or rooms in which glandered 
horses have stood, the racks and other paraphernalia which are used 
about the diseased horses, must be carefully cleansed and disinfected. 
Clothes and brushes, etc., used about the diseased horses must be 
burned ; chains heated hot ; but harnesses, etc., may be thoroughly 
cleaned and disinfected." 

• Variola Ovina. — " The infectious elements soon lose their vi- 
tality on exposure to the moving atmosphere ; hence are easily dis- 
turbed. The manure and the walls of the pens, however, retain 
it a long time, and are to be treated accordingly." 

Rabies. — " The straw, wood-work, utensils, muzzles, collars, etc., 
must be burned. The other disinfection is according to the usual 
course." 



PART III. 
THE MEA^S OF PKEVENTIOK 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 

Aside from those animal diseases which are transmissible to 
man, there are contagious animal diseases which are limited to spe- 
cial species. We have now well domesticated with us one of the 
very worst of these evils — contagious pleuro-pneumonia of cattle. 
It is not my purpose to enter into any historical notice of this dis- 
ease, either in Europe or this country. Its first most extensive rav- 
ages were felt here, in Massachusetts, between 1860 and 1868, the 
disease being finally crushed out at a cost of some sixty thousand dol- 
lars. In September, 1879, 1 received a letter from one of the com- 
missioners of the State of New York for the suppression of this dis- 
ease, in which he says that over five hundred diseased cattle had 
already been killed by the authorities, and some seven hundred 
more, which were either suspected or had surely been exposed to 
infection, causing an actual loss, exclusive of the official expenses, 
of not less than fifty or sixty thousand dollars. 

This disease has now spread over many of our seaboard States, 
being domesticated surely as far north as Connecticut, and as far 
south as Northern Virginia. It has not as yet been sufficiently 
proved that it has crossed the Alleghany Mountains, but, unless 
our people wake up to the urgencies of the case, it will surely ex- 
tend to the herds of the West, and then we can give up all hope of 
ever becoming free from it. A peculiarity of this disease, which it 
enjoys in common with glanders, is the insidiousness of its course 
during its early stages. An animal may be diseased for weeks, or 
even months, without showing any striking indications that a dis- 
ease having such a truly devastating character is progressing within 
it. During all this time it is capable of infecting others. The fol- 
lowing report, taken from the " Turf, Field, and Farm," January 



368 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

16, 1880, will give an, idea of what the authorities in New Jersey are 
endeavoring to do, and have done. 

Report by the Surgeon-in-Chief to General Sterling, the Gov- 
ernor's Agent for the Prevention of the Spread of Pleuro- 
pneumonia in the State of New Jersey. 

249 Washington Street, Jersey City, N. J., ) 
December 15, 1879. ) 

Sir : In compliance with your instructions, I have the honor to 
submit my report of the details and operations under my charge as 
Yeterinary Surgeon-in-Chief of the Bureau. 

I found it necessary to organize a staff of six qualified veterina- 
rians to assist in carrying out the provisions of the law entitled 
" An Act to prevent the spread of Epizootic, Contagious Pleuro- 
pneumonia among Cattle in New Jersey." (See Chapter 89 of the 
Laws of the State of New Jersey, approved March 13, 1879.) 
Much work having been done in Bergen County, and no disease 
having been found, and reports having come to the office that the 
disease was present in Hudson County, the inspectors were assigned 
to work there. 

Every herd has been carefully examined, and when the disease 
has been found, the animals have either been destroyed or the sta- 
bles quarantined and the stock carefully watched. The dairymen 
had been in the habit of pasturing their stock indiscriminately on 
the public commons, this being a source of spreading the disease. 

It became necessary to take some steps to control it. With that 
object in view, the Police Commissioners of Jersey City were con- 
sulted, and they caused an order to be issued prohibiting the driv- 
ing of all cattle through the streets, unless accompanied by a permit 
issued from this office. On July 7th it became necessary to quar- 
antine Essex County to facilitate inspections, which, when com- 
pleted, showed, as a result, that the stock was, with a few excep- 
tions, healthy. The other counties have only been inspected in 
localities where the disease was reported to exist, and the herds in 
the immediate neighborhood have been examined to ascertain the 
extent of the spread of the malady. Having been made aware of 
the existence of the disease in Pennsylvania, and arrangements hav- 
ing been perfected, four veterinarians were dispatched to the west- 
ern frontier of the State, one to be stationed at Bull's Island and 
one at Trenton, these to examine all cattle arriving between Cam- 
den and Phillipsburg, and two at Camden, to examine all stock ar- 
riving between that point and Salem, with instructions to return all 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 369 

stock found infected with contagious pleuro-pneumonia. On Au- 
gust 18, 1879, regular examinations were commenced on that bor- 
der, and the results obtained have shown the necessity of the meas- 
ures taken. 

Four months' inspections have discovered sixteen lots of diseased 
cattle containing 217 head, forty of which were found infected with 
contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and, with the rest, sent back to Phila- 
delphia. 

These are only the positive results obtained ; the farmers have 
been greatly benefited by receiving a much better grade of cattle 
than heretofore, as the dealers buy only healthy stock, knowing by 
experience that it would be useless to attempt to pass any other kind. 

How the Work is being done. — Finding a strong feeling of an- 
tipathy existing among the people against the introduction of radical 
measures, and with a view of obviating that feeling, the inspectors 
were instructed to exercise discretion and extend courtesy toward 
those with whom they came in contact while in the discharge of 
their duties, and to report all interference on the part of the people 
to this office, where the case would receive due consideration. 

This course, I am happy to say, has been productive of excellent 
results, as far as removing all feeling of opposition and inducing 
cattle-owners to look upon the inspectors as a source of protection. 

The Method of making Inspections. — In order to facilitate the 
work, a detective, who is thoroughly acquainted with the city, pre- 
cedes the inspectors, locating the stables, number of cattle, etc., 
which he reports to this office. The inspectors are then provided 
with lists of the same, with printed forms of quarantine notices, and 
instructed to proceed to the places, make a careful examination, and 
if any diseased animals are found, to mark them by clipping the 
hair from the right gluteal region, forming the letters P. P., with 
a cross-cut through the skin between with a sharp scalpel, while 
those standing contiguous to, or having been in contact with them, 
being thereby rendered liable to develop the malady, are simply 
marked with the letters and isolated to await further developments. 

The stable is then quarantined by placing a printed notice on 
the building, and at the close of the day's labor the inspectors return 
to the office where, upon printed forms, a report of the number, lo- 
cation, and condition of each herd is made, which is placed upon file 
for further reference. As soon as compatible we then proceed to the 
infected herd, make a careful reinspection, and determine what 
should be done under the circumstances. The owner being first con- 
sulted by stating to him the case with its probable results, and if it is 

24 



370 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

necessary to kill in order to prevent the spread of the malady, he is 
so informed, and the animals are taken out, destroyed, their hides 
slashed, and the carcasses, if in the city limits, carted away by the 
offal contractor ; if not, they are buried. 

The remaining animals, though showing no diseased condition, 
are looked upon with suspicion from having been in contact with 
the infection, and when in proper condition are sent to the butcher, 
where they are slaughtered under the supervision of an inspector. 
In some cases where the animals are in a safe locality, so that 
there is no danger of the disease spreading, though having passed 
through a slight attack of the malady, but evidently making a rapid 
recovery, it is considered prudent to keep them in quarantine until 
they can be fitted for the butcher, and the flesh utilized for human 
consumption. 

After the manure, litter, and all material having a tendency to 
retain infection has been removed from the stable, it is then thor- 
oughly disinfected, and ninety days' afterward, if the owner is de- 
sirous, the quarantine is removed, and new cattle allowed on the 
premises. 

Dealers. — One of the worst difficulties we have been called upon 
to overcome is the dealer, a sharp, shrewd, unscrupulous, unprin- 
cipled person, who studies to take advantage of the unsophisticated 
dairyman, and even the Bureau, whenever the opportunity presents. 
His favorite method is to go to a stable where diseased animals are 
known to be kept, procure one in the early stages of the malady, 
take it to a healthy herd, where its presence will soon occasion an 
outbreak, when he will stand ready to purchase the diseased animals 
at his own price and put them upon the market to be used for beef. 

Investigation has shown that such a course has been productive 
of a great deal of trouble, and we have considered it necessary to 
restrict them in their manner of dealing, in order to arrest the 
spread of the malady. With that object in view, we have intro- 
duced a system of granting permits, requiring all those desirous of 
moving cattle to call at this office, where they are required to give 
their name, number, or residence, number of cattle and where they 
wish to take them. If, upon consulting our books, the person does 
not appear as having cattle that have been previously inspected, an 
inspector is directed to the place, who makes an examination, and 
if the animals are found free from disease, as well as the place where 
they are destined to go, a printed form of permit is granted from 
this office allowing their removal. 

By this means they may be traced at any time, and any effort 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 371 

on the part of the dealer to traffic in unhealthy animals is prevented. 

This course proves a positive protection to the purchaser, as 
well as requiring the dealer to traffic only in healthy stock and 
secure him a good reputation, however much he may desire other- 
wise. All cattle leaving infected places must be accompanied by 
a permit which admits of their being taken only to places of 
slaughter, where, under the supervision of an inspector, they are 
destroyed, and a proper disposition made of the carcasses. 

Reinspection. — When cattle have assumed a risk, but not act- 
ually presenting symptoms of the malady, and while awaiting its 
incubation, it has always been the custom, in this as well as in 
European countries, to practice occision; but, believing that pro- 
ceeding to be an expensive experiment, we have adopted the rule 
of allowing the animals to remain in provisional quarantine ; and 
from time to time making reinspections, by which means we are 
able to keep the stable under surveillance during the incubative 
period, when, if the disease does not appear, the quarantine is raised 
and the stock declared healthy. This manner of proceeding being 
a departure from the rule adopted in European countries, is looked 
upon with disfavor by foreign veterinarians, notwithstanding expe- 
rience has taught us that it has been productive of a great saving to 
this State. Several stables, containing a number of cattle, were 
during the spring months quarantined in consequence of finding 
one or more diseased animals in them, which were removed and de- 
stroyed, and the stables subjected to an occasional reinspection until 
six months had elapsed, when, no further disease being manifest, 
the quarantine was raised and the premises declared free from all 
contagious disease. After carefully computing the cost of conduct- 
ing these reinspections, and comparing it with the necessary expense 
following the destruction of the cattle, there is a handsome balance 
in favor of the former method. 

Mistaken Theories. — Nine months' constant intercourse with 
" epizootic contagious pleuro-pneumonia " has established the fact 
that many erroneous ideas have been allowed to creep into the 
minds of the people in regard to the nature, character, means of 
prevention, etc., of the malady, and foremost among them is inocu- 
lation. 

A so-called preventive means of avoiding the spread of the mal- 
ady is practiced with varying success. The following are the views 
of two eminent authorities on the subject. 

Professor JLiautard, Dean of the American Veterinary College, 



372 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

" The prophylaxis of inoculation, efficient as it may be in an 
epizootic outbreak, certainly has no claims for adoption in connec- 
tion with the disease as it now exists, for it would only prove one 
of the surest methods of spreading the malady, while our aim should 
be to confine it to its present quarters, and then eradicate it at what- 
ever cost the method may entail." 

Referring to the subject, Clater says : 

" Inoculation lias been practiced with questionable success. Ex- 
periments professing to be for the object of testing the efficacy of 
direct inoculation for pleuro-pneumonia have been recommended 
and practiced with great looseness. The peculiarly subtle character 
of a contagious disease is not sufficiently weighed with care. It is 
a very general practice to recommend and adopt the remedy after 
an animal has succumbed to the affliction. We contend, therefore, 
that inoculation in such cases is no test of efficacy, as with the exist- 
ence of pleuro-pneumonia upon the farm, no one can arrive at a safe 
conclusion whether the consequence of the malady has really re- 
sulted from a direct cause or from the artificial means employed. 

" All the profitable terminations of pleuro-pneumonia have been 
witnessed in its unmolested march through a herd when inoculated ; 
hence our disbelief in the sufficiency of the evidence at present be- 
fore us." 

The results of investigation are so conflicting, indefinite, and at 
variance with seeming facts, that it is not by any means established 
that any degree of success has ever been obtained by its use. 

There is not a single instance, so far as we have been able to 
learn, where it has been resorted to until after the malady had act- 
ually attacked a herd, when more or less of its number might rea- 
sonably be supposed to have assumed a risk. 

Now, since all authorities are agreed to the fact that its incuba- 
tive period ranges all the way from ten to ninety days, we can not 
see how its application could affect an animal when applied at about 
the time it should be assuming an acute character, unless we can go 
a step further and claim for it a curative effect. In the face of the 
fact that the malady often exhausts itself with attacking but one or 
two animals out of a herd of many and the rest suffering immunity ; 
also that the disease often breaks out in the same herd after inocu- 
lation has been performed, as well as the negative results following 
its use in England, Belgium, Australia, and other countries where 
the disease has existed for a long time — we think there is but little 
doubt, notwithstanding it has a few advocates, that it has thus far 
proved inert to accomplish the desired result, and that we must 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 373 

look elsewhere for a more substantial means of eradicating the 
disease. 

Careful investigations recently prosecuted from this office in- 
duce us to fully coincide in the above view of the subject. 

In this month's issue of the " Veterinary Journal," Mr. George 
Fleming, in an editorial article, takes strong ground in favor of the 
treatment which he bases upon the result of experiments conducted 
at Edinburgh, Scotland, by a Mr. Rutherford, recently from Aus- 
tralia. He also claims advantages following its application there, 
which are at variance with the true facts in the case. We have 
made some effort to obtain information as to how it is received 
there, and find it is looked upon with a good deal of disfavor. 

We also know that, notwithstanding it has been practiced for a 
number of years, the country is still overrun by the malady. Sup- 
pose its introduction did confer immunity, we believe it would still, 
owing to its cost, be impracticable. "We have in this State 236,000 
head of cattle, all of which it would be absolutely necessary to in- 
oculate to use this method, and when we consider the time required 
to reach the herd, and consumed in introducing the virus, with the 
cost of the necessarily diseased animals which have to be destroyed 
in order to obtain a supply of virus, we may safely compute it at 
fifty cents per head, establishing a first cost, to either the State or 
the individual farmer, of not less than $118,000 ; besides, it would 
be necessary for the first few years to treat the offspring of that 
immense number of stock, entailing an increased expense. 

Other Diseases. — Many reported cases, in young stock, upon in- 
vestigation, prove to be the result of the presence in the bronchial 
tubes of the parasite Strongulus filarial, species Micruris. In 
some localities it exists to an alarming extent, causing a severe mor- 
tality. 

Its symptoms being similar to pleuro-pneumonia, it is usually 
mistaken by the farmers for that disease. It readily yields to scien- 
tific treatment ; but, owing to the immense loss it entails, should 
receive legislative consideration. Hog-cholera, likewise, exists in 
the southern part of the State, and is creating a good deal of alarm, 
but, not coming within the provisions of the act under which we 
are working, has received but little attention. It is a subject that 
also calls for legislative action. 

New Facts. — That we meet forms of pleuro-pneumonia varying 
in degrees of virulence is beyond question, and to that fact may be 
attributed the difference of opinion in regard to the efficacy of in- 
oculation. When, as frequently found, the malady will run through 



374 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

a herd, causing perhaps the loss of but one or two out of a large 
number of animals, and affecting the remainder to so slight a degree 
that the layman can scarcely appreciate it, we must admit it differs 
widely from that form which (under similar circumstances) causes a 
mortality of fifty and sometimes sixty per cent. To the former type 
may be traced the cause for the disputed question, Does an animal 
once affected ever recover ? We are inclined to the negative side 
of the question : after having destroyed a number of cases that have 
passed through a mild attack of the malady, we have found upon 
examination lung lesions generally in an encapsulated form. 

These cases we are willing to admit are perfectly safe to mingle 
in a herd, so long as the capsule walling up the disease-germs re- 
mains intact, but if it should break down, a condition we may very 
reasonably look for, and those germs be allowed to escape, shall we 
not have another outbreak ? If it is true, as claimed, that the dis- 
ease-germs are imprisoned and lie dormant in the lung for months, 
even years, the question very naturally presents itself, Do they in 
the mean time lose their infecting principle? Until this vexed 
question is settled beyond doubt, we advise as a means of preven- 
tion the destruction of all such cases. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

James C. Coblies, D. Y. S. 

To General W. H. Sterling, 249 Washington Street, Jersey City, N. J. 

The following is a summary of the work accomplished : Number 
of cattle inspected, 40,309 ; diseased, 572, of which 315 were de- 
stroyed. 

It will be seen from this report that " dealers " in cattle are a 
source of great trouble to those intrusted with the execution of laws 
against contagious animal diseases. 

I wish also to express my earnest opposition to inoculation, so 
far as it may be advocated as a preventive means for this country. 
Were it absolutely necessary that every head of cattle in this coun- 
try should have the disease, either in a natural or artificial form, in 
order to put a stop to its ravages, then this procedure would be jus- 
tifiable. At present it is not. The disease has not as yet acquired 
any very devastating extension, although, from the want of really 
competent veterinarians, it is doubtful if we know exactly to what 
degree it has extended in all the States where it is now domesticated. 
We shall know in time to our cost. Were our people so educated 
that they could really appreciate the truly devastating character of 
this animal pest ; were our legislators at all adequate to the demands 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 375 

we have a right to make upon them, there would not be an isolated 
case of lung-plague in this country in six months from this time. 
Alas ! . unity of action is the last thing to be expected of an Ameri- 
can Congress. "While political pettifoggers are squabbling over party- 
bones, the people are being daily robbed of millions of dollars by 
the ravages of different animal pests, and that other pest, equally 
dangerous, quacks. 

If all the cattle having this disease could be at once killed and 
paid for by the Government ; if all suspected animals, which in- 
cludes all which have been in contact with them, could be isolated 
and quarantined, or else at once killed, and sold for flesh ; if it were 
possible to subject all cattle entering our territory from Canada or 
from across the Atlantic to an appropriate quarantine — then we 
might soon be rid of this destroyer, and keep it foreign to our 
shores. This is impossible at present. We have not the necessary 
laws, and it is still more doubtful if we have at our command the 
necessary number of qualified veterinarians. 

I wish to say a word about cattle-inspection at points of delivery. 
In one sense of the word it is useless. Unless an inspector knows 
that a given lot of cattle have come from a suspected locality, he has 
no more right to condemn them for pleuro-pneumonia contagiosa 
than for an ordinary pneumonia before an autopsy has been made. 
Many people seem to think that it is easy to recognize this disease 
in the living animal, whether one knows the history of the case or 
not. In truth, no two animal diseases present so many difficulties 
in the way of recognition of their true character as this disease 
and pulmonary glanders. The differential diagnosis between a de- 
veloped case of lung-plague in cattle and tuberculosis is by no 
means difficult, although many would have it that it is so. All cat- 
tle, or other animals destined for transport, should have a "clean 
bill of health " signed by a State veterinarian at the place of pur- 
chase, and attested to by the proper legal official. This should be 
an invariable rule of animal transport. With this precaution, and 
careful regulation of the cattle during transport, there is but little 
danger of the spread of such diseases from one point to another. It 
is evident that, if the laws in the respective States were different 
in this regard, all action would be made null and void. All pneu- 
monias are not pleuro-pneumonia ; yet, how is the inspector at the 
place of destination or final shipment to distinguish one from the 
other, unless he knows the history, or has condemned one to necro- 
scopical examination ? The truth is, but few veterinarians in this 
country really know the pathological character of an ordinary bovine 



376 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

pneumonia. Cattle are so phlegmatic, they can endure so much, 
that but very few of them die from this disease ; yet it is a fact of 
pathological interest, at least, that the fully developed simple pneu- 
monia of cattle is the only form among our domestic animals which 
bears a strong resemblance to the cheesy pneumonia of man. 

Mr. John Gamgee says that "England loses two million pounds 
sterling annually from this disease." * 

Fleming says : " The losses from only two exotic bovine mala- 
dies (contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and the so-called 'foot-and- 
mouth disease ') have been estimated to amount, during the thirty 
years that have elapsed since our ports were thrown open to foreign 
cattle, to 5,549,780 head, roughly estimated at £83,616,854. The 
late invasion of ' cattle-plague,' which was suppressed within two 
years of its introduction, has been calculated to have caused a money 
loss of from five to eight millions of pounds. But these examples 
and estimates, after all, give but a slender idea of the devastation, 
misery, embarrassment, and loss that have been due to ignorance, 
apathy, and neglect of the teachings of veterinary science, which 
must, nevertheless, claim the merit of having conclusively demon- 
strated that the most formidable diseases can be readily repressed, 
or altogether abolished, though not by attempting to cure them, and, 
having done this, nothing more remains than to indicate the steps 
necessary to make the legislation of a wise government effective in 
its dealings with animal plagues in general." f 

It is scarcely possible for us to comprehend the monetary loss 
this disease has caused since its history began, not to speak of the 
misery it has brought upon many poor people. 

There is at present but one rule for its treatment : No temporiz- 
ing. Immediate slaughter, and redemption by the Government. 

We have, fortunately, not yet been visited by the rinderpest. 
Should that day ever come, there will be mourning in the land — 
Columbia weeping for her property, and little comfort will she get 
from church or State, unless we mend our ways and act more intelli- 
gently. 

The people of this country have no idea as to the real nature of a 
contagious animal disease. To this end it may be possible that they 
need the presence of this destroyer. The horse epizootic of 1871 
and 1872 was certainly infectious enough, but this disease is equally 
infectious, and so much more devastating that it is impossible for 
words to fitly express it. It is not slow and sneaking in its prog- 

* " Report on the Cattle Diseases in the United States," Washington, 1871. 
f " Animal Plagues," introduction, p. xxxiv. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. Z77 

ress. It breaks loose in a night ; ay, in an hour ; and, like a demon 
incarnate, it frequently sweeps the bovine family before it. Russia 
loses millions every year from it. Germany scarcely passes free 
from its ravages for any single year, though they are at present 
very quickly stamped out. In 1878 she lost 2,560 cattle, having a 
value of about half a million dollars. England lost some twenty-five 
million dollars' worth of cattle in the last great invasion which she 
suffered in 1865, 1866, and 1867. 

We have in this country the " Texas disease " of cattle, the real 
nature or causes of which we at present know very little about. It 
produces no inconsiderable loss each year, however, and the States, 
the frontiers of which border on lands where this disease seems to be 
domesticated, have been obliged to make laws regulating the traffic 
in cattle. The Agricultural Commissioner pretends to give some 
statistics with reference to the losses the people suffer from swine- 
plague. In 1876 it was reported that the loss from this disease 
alone amounted to some $20,000,000. The report for 1878 gives 
$30,000,000 as the amount of loss to the country from all conta- 
gious animal diseases. These are estimates — nothing more. It is 
absolutely impossible to gain any reliable statistics in a country 
where there is no system of veterinary laws or an efficient veteri- 
nary police. The value of reliable statistics, with reference to the 
extension of contagious disease among our animals, can not be over- 
estimated. Until we have them, it will be useless to hope for much 
conformable legislation. Every observing citizen must at once per- 
ceive the immense tax which these diseases impose upon the nation. 

It is highly probable that, were the real facts known, their rav- 
ages have cost the people more in the last hundred years of our ex- 
istence than our national debt amounts to. 

Every one should know that, if not absolutely preventable, yet it 
is possible for a competent veterinary police to reduce these losses to 
a very low minimum. 

Germany, with its efficient code of laws and veterinary police, is 
continually proving this ; while Britain and ourselves as frequently 
give proof of the incapacity of our respective Governments in this 
regard. 

No prevention can be hoped for until we have the necessary 
implements to work with. These implements are a national code 
of police laws, corresponding to the results obtained by modern sci- 
entific investigation, and an efficient body of educated veterinari- 
ans to execute them. With reference to the latter, men of very 
ordinary education can do the " pole-axe " business ; the graduates 



378 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

of our present American veterinary colleges being equal to that, 
while they are utterly incapable of doing the- higher state-work — 
i. e., making researches into the causes and nature of disease. This 
is no reflection upon them personally. It is upon conditions which 
do not give men desiring them suitable opportunities for acquiring 
an education which would fit them for this work. At present, how- 
ever, we have to do with the question of a national code of veteri- 
nary police laws. This word " national " is a peculiar bugbear to 
many people in this country, who can not rise above party affilia- 
tions or sectional jealousy. National does mean centralization — 
nothing else. The question to be considered — and in politics it is a 
truly scientific one — is, how much centralization is necessary for the 
good of the whole country, and how much individuality can be al- 
lowed the respective States, without their interfering with the rights 
of each other. We have in this country a singular phenomenon. We 
have multiplied the sacred rights of the individual to such a degree 
that the masses have scarcely any rights left. We are continually 
in fear of trampling upon the rights of the individual. In doing 
this, we forget that the masses have still greater rights. No indi- 
vidual has any right to pursue a course or suffer considerations 
which endanger the property or interfere with the rights of the 
masses. Unfortunately, instead of " the masses," we act as if one 
individual is alone to be considered. It is this "right of the British 
freeman " which has been the chief obstacle to the suppression of 
contagious animal diseases in Britain. I do not think our American 
citizens are such obstinate and ignorant sticklers for their individual 
rights as Englishmen. In conversing with a number of intelligent 
farmers in the vicinity of Boston, where pleuro-pneumonia had pre- 
vailed in times past, I found that they were mostly entirely unac- 
quainted with the true purposes of the laws for the suppression of 
this disease. As is well known, Massachusetts deported herself 
most energetically and creditably at this time, successfully extermi- 
nating the disease, and keeping it from her borders ever since. 
These farmers seemed, however, to have the idea that they, or their 
neighbors, or town, had been most unjustly treated. They had 
never gained the idea that, by slaughtering all the cattle of a few 
owners, those of the majority were saved, and the town spared a 
much greater loss. The rights of the individual are as nothing 
when those of the masses are endangered / yet it is the duty of the 
latter to amply remunerate the former for the loss they have caused 
him to incur for their protection. This is the sole and only prin- 
ciple which should guide legislators in drafting laws. Especially is 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 379 

this true with reference to those we are now considering. This prin- 
ciple is equally applicable to our respective States. Without such 
centralization — i. e., without some one controlling, inciting, directing 
power — nothing was ever yet accomplished. The question of regu- 
lation is to find the proper relation of such a power to the other ele- 
ments or powers by which it is surrounded, that the greatest good 
for all concerned may result from their united action. This prin- 
ciple is one of true politics. Whether it be true republicanism or 
democracy I do not know, and care even less. The family can 
not well exist without its head. The ship can not pursue her course 
over the sea without her responsible captain. No business has ever 
succeeded without its competent and accountable head. " Too many 
cooks spoil the broth. " is a homely but true saying. As a nation, 
we stand at present impotent before the ravages of the infectio- 
contagious animal diseases. We shall never get much beyond this 
impotent stage if we adhere to the State-rights doctrine with refer- 
ence to the suppression and prevention of these diseases. This doc- 
trine requires special notice at the present moment. We are ap- 
proaching a period in our history when the different State Legisla- 
tures will be called upon to make some kind of laws and regulations 
with reference to this question. Reflecting men, those best compe- 
tent to judge, are also endeavoring to urge the General Government 
to do likewise. The real question, which must be discussed with 
cool and unprejudiced brains, is, Which step is the more likely to be 
of most lasting benefit to the people of the whole country, as well as 
those of single sections ? Dr. Bowditch, in his valuable essay, " Pub- 
lic Hygiene in America," tells us that we have at present (1876) 
twenty-one States without either law or regulation looking to the 
suppression or prevention of these diseases. In ten States there 
were some, and sixteen were reported as indefinite, while from one 
State it was impossible to gain any information. Our markets are 
all without the supervision of competent inspectors, notwithstanding 
the great danger to the poorer classes, more so than the rich, of dis- 
ease of a disturbing if not fatal character, from the consumption 
of diseased meat. No State in this Union, so far as I know, has a 
State veterinarian in the true sense. In some there is a veterinarian 
attached to some agricultural society ; in others, to a cattle com- 
mission. The few regulations which exist in some States are totally 
inadequate to the purpose. They almost entirely fail in properly 
defining the duties of the public. Quacks are in no way made re- 
sponsible for the proper notification to the authorities of the pres- 
ence of a suspected contagious disease in a given animal. In fact, 



380 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

our laws are of such a nature that, while in some cases, as in pleuro- 
pneumonia, they allow of quite satisfactory action, because of the 
very limited extension of the disease, in others, as glanders, they are 
next to useless, because of the great extension which the disease has 
already acquired among our horses. One of our greatest errors is, 
that we have made no use of the few competent veterinary practi- 
tioners in the country. Our laws serve only to make one man very 
prominent without being of the service to the State that they 
should be. It is in the interests of the people that the veterinary 
profession be made of use, and not that a single veterinary com- 
missioner, in unison with several citizen members, have the en- 
tire work to do. It can not be done, as is sufficiently proven in 
Massachusetts, where we have an old and well-tried veterinarian 
on the cattle commission. While they did kill out pleuro-pneu- 
monia, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that they are next to 
powerless in fighting glanders single-handed. We seem to think 
that, having organized a " cattle commission," our work is done ; 
as if there were no other animal diseases worthy of consideration ! 
Finally, in some States they attached a section with reference to 
glanders, and with that we have thus far rested content. Such a 
system is next to useless. It can never lead to any reliable statis- 
tics. These laws or regulations in the different States have very 
little in common. In many States they are simply dead letters, 
there being no competent authority to see them properly exe- 
cuted. " What is everybody's business is nobody's." In no one 
sense is the saying, " In union there is strength," more strictly true 
than in combating contagious animal diseases. It may be positively 
asserted that, if we adhere strictly to the principle of State-rights 
in this regard, all our endeavors to prevent and suppress these dis- 
eases will be weak and of but little avail. 

All must admit that the manner of viewing any given subject 
is not the same even among a few individuals. How much less 
likely is this to be the case among large bodies jealous of each 
other ! These great differences of opinion are largely dependent 
upon a difference in information and education by the individual 
members ; and, secondly, upon a varying degree of appreciation of 
the nature of a threatened danger. A large amount of reading and 
reflection is necessary before men are competent to logically legis- 
late on any given subject, and on none more so than that we are at 
present considering. 

Hence it is that in some States we should have more or less 
suitable laws with a corresponding execution of the same, while in 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 381 

others quite the contrary would be the case. Only when a com- 
mon danger exists, or when there is some central and controlling 
power to spur men on to their duty, and warn them of their dan- 
ger, do we have energetic and uniform action. The results of this 
condition of things may be made more apparent by supposing that 
pleuro-pneumonia is present in two or more adjoining States. The 
authorities of one of these States, thoroughly aware of the dangers 
to which her bovine population is exposed, and not regardless, we 
may hope, of their duty to sister States, have made ample provision 
of money, and drafted appropriate regulations for " stamping out " 
the disease. They have selected special persons to execute the same. 
On the other hand, the authorities of an adjoining State have de- 
cided to follow the temporizing policy. They seem to fear a primary 
outlay, not appreciating that a small outlay, well expended, at first, 
may save an immense expense in the future. The regulations of 
this State, and the manner in which they are executed, are of that 
form which serve to express a fear of the ill-will of the people. 
Her legislators seem to have their attention more earnestly fixed 
upon influences likely to interfere with the next elections, rather 
than on their duties to the people. They appear to utterly ignore 
any responsibility with reference to their duties toward adjoining 
States. They make of their State a hot-house from which pesti- 
lential germs may be disseminated, not only to adjoining States, but 
even to those more distantly situated. Of what use, then, is all the 
outlay of time, money, and labor by the authorities of the first- 
named State ? To prevent the disease extending over her borders, 
she must treat her sister State as an enemy. She must place an em- 
bargo, not only on all cattle from, that State, but upon all passing 
through that State. She can allow no cattle to cross her frontiers 
from a State where the laws are less stringent, or poorly executed, 
without first subjecting them to inspection, and frequently to quar- 
antine. Were this regulation carried out along a long line of traffic 
through different States, it requires no stress of the imagination to 
perceive the great disturbances which our trade in domestic animals 
would suffer. In the case of glanders it will be absolutely impos- 
sible to keep it properly confined within narrow limits, unless we 
have the same laws and regulations for every State in the Union, 
and equally stringent execution of the same. Otherwise, such 
horses can be run backward and forward across State boundaries, or 
the result will be that the disease will acquire an undesirable exten- 
sion in those States where the laws are lax, or where they are but 
dead letters for the want of proper execution. The people of such 



382 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

a State will then suffer losses which they richly deserve. We find it 
necessary to have national laws to prevent the introduction of con- 
tagious human diseases from foreign countries. Is it not equally 
necessary that we have such a code of laws as will best protect the 
animal property of all the people in this country to the same degree, 
and not (as will be the invariable result, if we leave the States 
to make their own laws) have such codes as to offer but incom- 
plete protection to the people of any State ? The universal testi- 
mony of all men who have busied themselves with the suppression 
of contagious animal diseases is, that it is rendered doubly difficult 
because of the ease with which owners can get rid of diseased or 
suspected animals. Dealers are, in general, only too willing to take 
advantage of such opportunities to get cheap bargains, and they are 
equally regardless of the interests of the community in transporting 
them. A man sick with a contagious disease gladly stays at home. 
But if a person practicing as a veterinarian informs most owners of 
the presence or the suspicion of a contagious disease among their ani- 
mals, the owner's first endeavor is to get them off ; and experience 
has proved that many of them care very little about the danger of 
infection to which they subject the property of other men. This is 
absolute testimony to the necessity of regulating the duties of em- 
pirics and quacks in the practice of veterinary medicine, as well as 
owners. The duties of graduates must naturally also be regulated 
by law. "With reference to the trustworthiness and public spirit 
of owners, a most interesting example occurred in connection with 
trichinosis in swine within a few weeks. 

A gentleman came to me one afternoon, and in a very bombas- 
tic manner requested me to examine two pieces of pork. These 
hogs had been fattened by himself, and, as he expressed it, were 
" blooded Berkshires." It was, or is, his custom to fatten two each 
year, and present pieces of " home-fed pork " to his friends at Christ- 
mas. One piece was free, but the other was very badly trichinous. 
On showing them to the gentleman upon a hot table attached to the 
microscope, so that he could see the worms squirm about, he called 
me a " swindler," and intimated that I had introduced them surrep,- 
titiously into the specimen. Convincing him of his error, however, 
he somewhat recovered his temper, and remarked that he certainly 
could not think of presenting such pork to his friends, and that some 
would have to go without their present this year. " But there is no 
law against my sending it to market, is there ? " To which I am 
sorry I had to answer that there was not, nor could I prevent it ; 
but that I thought the rendering establishment the best place for it. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 383 

The answer, and the manner in which it was given, were something 
really worth recording. " Thank God, there's some freedom left in 
Massachusetts ! " said this pattern of Boston aristocracy ; for the gen- 
tleman is one frequently pointed out as an example of honesty and 
Christian virtues. " Thank God, there's some freedom left in Mas- 
sachusetts " for a wealthy man to sell pork which, if a little under- 
done, can cause the serious illness of persons consuming it, or even 
death ! Is there not need for laws to prevent the sale of improper 
food by technical examination ? If a person of this man's worldly 
standing has no moral responsibility, what have we to expect from 
the ordinary owner of horses, cattle, etc. % Every one at all ac- 
quainted with the internal arrangements of the German Empire 
must know that there is far more jealousy between the different 
kingdoms of which it is composed than there is between the differ- 
ent States composing our Union. [Notwithstanding this, these gov- 
ernments have seen the absolute necessity of an imperial code of 
laws for the suppression of the contagious animal diseases, experi- 
ence having proved the state laws hitherto in existence insufficient 
for the purpose, there being here and there a dissimilarity which re- 
sulted in evil consequence to the people of one state or another. 
We need not copy literally the German laws, but we can study 
them and adapt them to our uses. It is high time that active steps 
were taken, in this country, in this direction. 

To this end our national Congress should either select a commis- 
sion of honest men, or authorize the President to select such from 
among the leading stock-raisers of the country, one from each of 
our great geographical sections. This commission should select 
three of the ablest approved veterinarians in the country, and two 
able and non-partisan lawyers. These five men should be paid to 
make a study of the veterinary police laws and institutions of such 
countries as are worthy of consideration, and should then draft a 
national code of laws and regulations in strict accord with the re- 
sults of the best scientific research, and with exact regard to logic 
and explicitness in language. These laws should be accepted by 
Congress and by the respective State Legislatures. Such a plan in 
no way interferes with the right of States to make such special 
laws and regulations, in addition to them, as their local needs, posi- 
tions, or other requirements may demand ; and furthermore, as will 
presently be seen, our plan will provide each State with a competent 
and trustworthy body of men to execute the laws. From these 
three, and others, if they desire, should be selected a person to be 
known as Veterinary Inspector-General of the United States. This 



384: THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

position should never be disgraced by being filled by political favor- 
ites of congressmen, secretaries, or commissioners. The present 
Commissioner of Agriculture would gladly have the appointment 
given over to his dispensation. Fortunately, Congress has not yet 
seen fit to give him such a liberty. A man must, at least, know- 
something of the duties of the office to be filled, if he is to appoint 
an incumbent. This position must be filled on its merits, and by 
public competition before the members of the National Board of 
Health in the first place ; but when the time comes, the incumbent 
should be elected by vote of the trustees and teachers of the national 
school, from among the State veterinary inspector-generals of the 
country. No teacher or professor of the school should ever be 
eligible to the office so long as they were connected with that insti- 
tution. In no other way should it be possible for any man to gain 
the position. Science is the search after truth. A scientist who 
uses the ways of politicians to gain a position does not deserve the 
name. Science is open as the day. Politics is as dark and intricate 
as the passages of a coal-mine, and about as dirty. Science is not 
politics, as we see it displayed in America. There is such a thing 
as political science, but it has not yet been introduced into our legis- 
lative halls. The great men of science have been the truest servants 
of mankind. Scientists are patriots, not demagogues or political 
hucksters, ready to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. 

The Yeterinary Inspector-General of the United States should 
be attached to the National Board of Health, as should all State 
inspector-generals to State boards. The whole system of veterinary 
sanitary police should be part and parcel of one grand national sani- 
tary system, working in the interests of true preventive medicine. 

These officers should hold their positions until sixty years old, 
unless incapacitated for work by sickness. They should be liberally 
paid ; and, in case of retirement, their pay should be continued to 
them during life. The nation and the States need all their energies 
and time. 

On his death, if leaving a widow or minor children, the former 
should have at least two thirds of the husband's pension during life, 
and the children a proportionate share until sixteen years of age. 
The State inspector-generals should be selected by public compe- 
tition of approved veterinarians before the members of the State 
Board of Health. In each State there must be county, district, mar- 
ket, and other local veterinary officials. These men must first have 
passed a special examination, instituted for the purpose, with refer- 
ence to sanitary police duties, at the National Yeterinary Institute. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 385 

Until such an institution is organized, the competitions should take 
place before the members of the State Board of Health of each 
State. They should receive a certain amount of pay per year for 
official work, and in no case should they hold office after becoming 
sixty years old. They should not be subject to pensions, as their 
official positions should assist them in practice by guaranteeing to 
the people their superior education. Local inspectors, while belong- 
ing to the force, such as market and milk inspectors, should be paid 
by the respective local authorities. State inspectors, ordered to at- 
tend horse or cattle fairs or markets, should be paid for the time of 
service by the respective associations. The State should fix the 
price, which should be liberal, and allow for all traveling and inci- 
dental expenses. 

We can not expect any intelligent appreciation, on the part of 
the public, of the value of such a sanitary system, unless we can 
present them with reliable statistical information on the subject. 
Without statistics we can not tell to what degree such diseases are 
domesticated in a given State, nor can we judge of our success in 
combating them from year to year. To this end, returns should be 
made quarterly by the district and local veterinary officials to those 
of the county, and semi-annually by the latter to the State Inspector- 
General, who should make an annual report to the inspector-general 
at Washington, who in his turn should prepare a condensed annual 
report of the condition and work done in the whole country — the 
same to be a part of the report of the National Board of Health. 
It must not be forgotten that this work of inspection is never to be 
limited to contagious diseases of animals alone, but that most espe- 
cial attention must be given to the study and observation of those 
diseases and conditions which are either known, or are supposed, to 
exert harmful or dangerous influences upon the health of mankind. 
The true veterinarian is fully as much a guardian of the public 
health as the medical hygienist. The curing of sick animals is by 
far the most insignificant part of his work. Prevention is the true 
strength of veterinary science. In this regard the veterinarian is 
of far more importance to humanity than the medical practitioner. 
The tables are exactly turned about in the two branches of medi- 
cal science. The doctor is strongest in practice, the veterinarian in 
the prevention of diseases. 

By the plan which we have proposed for a national veterinary 
police code and organization, it is self-evident that the extension of 
any disease over the country, or from one State to another, can be 
very strongly combated. In case a contagious animal disease — we 

25 



386 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

will assume the rinderpest — breaks out at any place, say Columbus, 
Ohio, the law requires the owner, attendant quack, empiric, or regular 
practitioner, to at once notify the next veterinary official of the 
State of the suspicion or actual appearance of the disease. If the 
former is very strong, or becomes at once confirmed, he at once no- 
tifies the inspector-general of his State, who at once notifies every 
official veterinarian in the State, and the inspector-general at Wash- 
ington. The latter notifies each State general inspector, who in 
his turn notifies the State veterinary officials. What is the result ? 
An absolute quarantine of every head of cattle in this whole country. 
Not a single one can be moved without the permit of an official 
veterinarian. All transported cattle are watched from place of ship- 
ment to destination. Extension, under such circumstances, is re- 
duced to the lowest possible limit. The same is true of every other 
contagious animal disease. Smuggling or removal across State 
boundaries of suspected or diseased animals becomes useless, for 
notification is at once transmitted from the one State to the other. 
There is no opposition between the authorities of different States. 
The laws are the same. The officials belong to one organization. 
They are appointed for a term of years. Truly, every one must see 
that in this case we have unity in purpose and strength to execute the 
laws. State rights are respected, individual rights honored, yet both 
State and individual receive the fullest amount of protection for 
their animal property which it is in the power of science to bestow. 
I have said that the national veterinary inspector should be attached 
to the National Board of Health, and that the whole veterinary 
sanitary organization should be a part of a grand national system of 
preventive medicine. We have a National Board of Health. Oth- 
ers have expressed their ideas of its work, therefore it may be 
allowed me to close this section of my book with some of my own, 
crude as they may appear. 

The National Board of Health was called into being simply on 
account of the yellow fever. Its work, up to the present time, has 
been chiefly limited to the study of that disease, and in seeking for 
means looking toward its prevention. This much-needed work 
should be amply supported, and obstinately persevered in, but we 
may be sure that many years will elapse before any marked success 
will crown our efforts. Success will come, however, if the Ameri- 
can people can keep their balance long enough not to cry out for a 
false economy, which is the last cry one should hear in this impor- 
tant branch of our Government. The work of a National Board of 
Health has, however, scarcely begun when it is limited to yellow 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 387 

fever. Such, an institution must be the focal stimulus which shall 
gradually cause the organization of one grand national system of 
preventive medicine. It must seek to incite reforms where they are 
needed, and among these none is more important than one stand- 
ard medical examination for the country, and one similar course of 
study at every medical school in the land. No good work can ever 
be done except as the result of organized effort. Centralized, that 
is, concentrated effort, is always rewarded by better results than 
isolated, sporadic endeavor. Many of our States are still without 
effective boards of health, as is also the case in many large cities or 
towns. In only one State, Massachusetts, have we anything like 
State medical officers. In this State we have the " medical examin- 
ers " taking the place of that useless inheritance from England, the 
" coroner." In effective work it is absolutely necessary that the 
whole country become subjected to one code of sanitary laws, 
suitable to the general needs, while in every State, county, city, 
or town, such special laws must be made, and are in general, as 
the local needs demand. These special laws and regulations should 
always bear a proper relation to the general. It is the drafting of 
the latter which will devolve upon the national board. Once hav- 
ing such laws and regulations, the next thing is their execution. 
To this end competent sanitary officials are necessary. These ap- 
pointments should never be made until candidates have passed a 
special examination, to be fixed for the purpose by the National 
Board of Health for the whole country — the examination to consist 
in questionings upon the pathology, etiology, etc., of the diseases 
included among those generally spoken of under the headings of 
preventive medicine. The examinations should be made by the 
members of the respective State boards of health. The organization 
of the sanitary system in each State should be similar to that which 
I have portrayed with regard to a veterinary organization. These 
positions should be points of ambition for our best young men. 
They should receive pay for official work. In cases where the ne- 
cessities of the public demanded their whole time they should be 
liberally paid, and open to a pension in the same manner as above 
considered. We should therefore have a National Board of Health 
in connection with State boards, which should be in connection with 
local boards and health officers. These officials must be thoroughly 
educated in the principles and practice of modern research, and in 
pathological anatomy and necroscopy. The professional members 
of the State boards of health should be appointed by the Governor 
from among the most competent of the sanitary officers. They should 



388 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

all be paid, and hold office until sixty years of age, or during activity. 
Those members who are required to devote their whole time to the 
service of the State should be pensioned on retirement. The State 
can never afford to be a " bummer." Men who can afford to work 
for honor alone are seldom fitted to serve the State well. This 
principle of working for the State for honor alone, so common in 
certain positions in this country, can not be too strongly condemned. 
It is death to young men, and equally detrimental to the public 
good. A State which is too poor to pay competent men for the 
work it requires of them is too poor to exist. It had better secede 
out of this Union, or be merged into another which is capable of 
paying for work well done. 

Boards of health are too much limited to gathering statistics. 
Again, these statistics are often too much limited to those of the so- 
called infectious diseases. The latter class of statistics has a very 
subordinate value. It matters but little whether one thousand or 
ten thousand men perish from a given infectious disease, so long as 
the cause is present, yet unknown, and prevention thus far impos- 
sible. It is far more necessary that observations and experiments 
in these two directions be made than that exact statistics be gathered 
annually. Statistics as to causal influences, however, can never be 
too highly appreciated. These accumulated statistics have one good 
purpose : without them, in this country, it would be impossible to get 
means enough from the Legislatures to carry on the necessary studies 
and experiments by which we may in the end hope to find means 
of prevention. Boards of health should always have the necessary 
means to carry on an experiment station, and to amply reward 
specialists for experimental researches in any desired direction. 

There is, however, another form of statistics, the careful collec- 
tion of which would send a thrill of horror over the human family, 
and it is from this form that we may, in the distant future, expect 
very valuable results. To obtain them we need far better practi- 
tioners, much less prejudiced thinkers, than we at present have in 
the medical profession. 

I allude to statistics with regard to the really preventable dis- 
eases of life ; the diseases due to ignorance, not only on the part of 
the diseased, but of practitioners as well. An ignorance of duty 
with reference to the latter, for the medical adviser who treats only 
is simply fit for confinement among idiots. I allude further to the 
diseases due to the ignorance of the people in the employment of 
quacks, and further to the still more to be condemned American 
craze, the use of those disgraces of our civilization, legalized patent 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY POLICE SYSTEM. 3S9 

life-destroyers, discoveries of the devil or his agents — -patent medi- 
cines. 

Another disease which requires statistical attention is tubercular 
consumption. It kills more people in ten years than any invasive 
disease of the present day is likely to do. Our climate has been 
made to play a much too important part among the causes of this 
disease. Climate, employment, etc., all play the sufficient or pro- 
ducing causes, but very seldom the primary cause. The primary 
cause is to be sought in the senseless inbreeding of weak lungs from 
generation to generation among human beings, until at present the 
very irritation of normal breathing is often sufficient to send a child 
into an early grave from tubercular consumption. The medical 
profession acknowledge the influences of our climate. Perhaps they 
can see the other also. But truth is ever unpleasant ; and to tell 
parents that their children dare not marry at all, or dare not inter- 
marry — to tell young lovers they dare not marry, because they 
would condemn their children to an early grave — would seriously 
interfere with one's yearly income. Who of the medical prof ession 
stands tip as a man of truth and proclaims to the world that con- 
sumptives dare not marry, or that children of families with such 
tendencies must not intermarry ? We must out-oreed this tendency 
to weak lungs by sensible and exact marriage, or we shall find still 
more reason to condemn our climate than we now have. Why do 
these men study medicine? It is certainly not to think, not to 
speak, the truth. To make a living, regardless of the good of hu- 
manity. Medical practice has fallen to a business in this country, 
instead of being conducted as a science. Can these men think ? 
Can they observe what every breeder of fine cattle has long since 
known ? I scarcely believe it. Blind ! blind ! Education is a 
myth ! Ignorance only exists ! To think, the evidence of true 
education seems to be the thing we must seek after. "We may find 
it among the lost arts. Until then, humanity will go on damning 
its children, for a longer or shorter time, to a living hell of misery 
and pain. There is hut one cure for consumption (quacks to the 
contrary) : Consumptives, descendants of consumptive families, dare 
not intermarry. 

Syphilis is a disease of similar character. It can scarcely be 
rooted out from an organism when once its terrible germs have 
gained access. Does the medical profession do its duty in this 
regard ? Does it tell young but unfortunate patients that they dare 
not marry ? " Marry, doctor ? " " Oh, yes." " Perfectly cured ? " 
" Oh, yes." But the child produced not only brands the medical 



390 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION". 

adviser as a liar, a stupid and irresponsible ignoramus, but publishes 
the father's " cured " condition (?) to the world. Statistics would 
indeed teach a valuable lesson with regard to these inherited dis- 
eases and disease tendencies. After these numerical statistics have 
been gathered, still another form of no secondary importance de- 
mands our attention. It is not enough to know the number of 
deaths which occur in a country from a number of given dis- 
eases. We do absolutely nothing, except to establish an annual per- 
centage with such figures. To complete the work, it is necessary 
that all natural influences should be most carefully observed by com- 
petent men. We must have accurate reports with reference to the 
condition of the ground-water in all sections of the country, its tem- 
perature, and seek to accurately define the relations of the same to 
typhus and typhoid diseases. We must know the influences exerted 
upon the eruption and extension of diseases by the water-courses 
and prevailing winds. We must know what diseases prevail mostly 
or most severely in the valleys and upon high and exposed table- 
lands, as well as wooded districts or low and marshy lands. We 
must know accurately the influences exerted by changes of tempera- 
ture, seasons, wet or dry, and the connection between the diseases 
of the different species of the animal kingdom. When all this is 
done, our National Board of Health should publish, once in every 
ten years, pathological geographical maps, with reference to the 
extension of all forms of disease in the United States ; not one is to 
be excepted, whether due to transmitted influences, to infection, or 
to external influences. This, with the annual reports, in unison 
with investigations at the hands of competent experts, and the work 
of the veterinary department, constitutes, in my mind, the work of 
a national organization for the purposes of preventive medicine. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 

In the preceding parts of this work we have endeavored to make 
our readers individually appreciate that mankind is constantly threat- 
ened with several serious and in many cases fatal diseases, from con- 
tact with diseased animals in life, or from the consumption of flesh, 
milk, or other materials derived from them. We have also shown 
that the prevention of these evils, as well as the ravages of the strictly 
contagious animal diseases, can not be attained, or hoped for, with- 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 391 

out a well-organized system of veterinary police, and a carefully 
drafted code of laws and regulations. It should be evident to every 
one that this much-desired prevention, and the collection of those 
valuable statistics, in a trustworthy manner, by which the people 
can alone determine as to the extension which the contagious and 
infectious animal diseases acquire each year, do not come within the 
province of the medical practitioner. We have shown that, in the 
majority of the States, no laws exist for the suppression and preven- 
tion of contagious animal diseases, and in no State are they what 
they should be, or at all conformable to the latest results of scientific 
research. This work can only be well performed by the veterinarian 
who has been thoroughly schooled in the principles and methods 
of scientific medicine at a well-regulated institution. It is the same 
in medicine. The thirst for knowledge for itself is the sole incen- 
tive to original research. Monetary rewards are not gained in the 
medical laboratory which is devoted to the study of physiology and 
pathology. The practitioner who is always boasting of his cures, 
who prides himself in a knowledge of the by-gones, if not too lazy ; 
who always treats the earnest endeavors and researches of some 
brother practitioner with scorn ; who echoes the popular voice, by 
speaking of him as a theorist, " a very learned man, but fails in 
not having had my practical experience," is to be invariably put 
down as a humbug and first-class ignoramus. The man of expe- 
rience alone is always an ignorant man in the light of science. 
How often do the boasted men " of great practical experience " 
fail ! They sink into a well-deserved oblivion before the genius of 
the first-class practitioner, who unites in himself the two elements, 
theory and practice, the one inseparable union which shall endure 
forever. Scientia est potentia ("Science is power"). Without 
science, i. e., without theory, where would the world be now ? Sci- 
ence holds the keys to the money-vaults of the world. She opens 
to our view the hidden treasures of the earth. She adapts to our 
uses the raw materials which she teaches us to win from nature. 
She has given us all the means of comfort and luxury which we 
have ; but, greater than all these, she is the fair goddess whose rules 
and teachings, faithfully applied, lead to health. Science alone can 
discover the means of prevention — crude experience, empiricism, 
never ! The workers in the many fields of science have been among 
the noblest benefactors of the human race, and among these none 
have excelled those of medicine for their untiring devotion and self- 
sacrifice. These men constantly neglect the very laws which they 
are begging humanity to follow ; no devotion is too great to dampen 



392 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

their zeal ; every means, even to unnecessary experiment upon them- 
selves, which have too often led to sacrifice of life, have been donated 
to the service of humanity. "With right France immortalizes the 
name of her Bichat, Germany her Yirchow, England her Hunter, 
Holland her Boerhaave, Austria her Rokitansky. With right and 
justice, and a grand appreciation of the value of such men to the 
world, as well as their native countries, do the Continental govern- 
ments support them in the days of their activity, and relieve their 
minds from all anxiety for the future of themselves and their imme- 
diate dependants, by properly pensioning them when the period of 
decay comes on. 

All hail, then, the day when veterinary science shall find a fitting 
place wherein to develop among the people of this country ! 

To the purposes of prevention and suppression of the ravages 
and extension of the diseases which have been considered, it has 
been frequently observed that veterinarians are necessary. Having 
portrayed their work, it becomes us to consider how we can best 
produce them. The material is ready, the field planted. We have, 
I truly believe, better material, young men, to work upon than any 
other country in the world. All they are waiting for is the means 
by which they can acquire a suitable education. It is the duty of 
the people to supply these means. But, to this end, there must be, 
somewhere in the country, a properly endowed, organized, and regu- 
lated institution for the study of veterinary medicine. There are 
several ways by which veterinary schools have been established, but 
only two of these are worth a moment's earnest consideration ; still 
there are two others which it becomes our duty to consider, in order 
that we may be made well aware of their utter fallacy. The first 
two plans, which we will not at present consider, are — 1. State 
schools, controlled and regulated by each State, to which we will 
oppose a national school, answering all the purposes of the nation ; 
but, instead of being controlled by the Government, regulated by a 
board of trustees and its teachers, the former to be elected from a 
national association, which should be organized for the purpose. 

There are two plans which are to be condemned and combated 
as evils, the nature of which the people of this country have not as 
yet any conception of, but of which they must gradually learn. The 
first of these is an irregular number of chartered, uncontrolled, irre- 
sponsible institutions in each State ; and the second is known as the 
subscription plan, which may be rightly included in the first, but 
for special reasons deserves individual treatment. 

The first of these — that is, one or more chartered, uncontrolled, 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 393 

and in many instances irresponsible schools in each State — needs no 
exercise of the imaginative power in order that we may study it in 
all its bearings. It is more than amply illustrated by the condition 
of medicine in this country at the present time. In 1876 we had 
fifty-nine uncontrolled, chartered medical schools in this country. 
In some States the executive powers were not content with charter- 
ing one, but willingly increased the number conformably to the 
pleasure of applicants : as, in New York State, there are seven ; in 
Ohio, six ; and in the District of Columbia, one. But, not even 
content with thus disgracing the science of medicine to a most mer- 
cenary business, we find in some cities three or more schools, as is 
shown by the following cutting from a daily paper : 

" The city of Chicago contains six medical schools — allopathic 
and homoeopathic — and, according to the ' Times,' they turn out 
graduates with greater rapidity, and of poorer quality, than any 
other medical colleges yet known. No preliminary education is 
absolutely required as a condition of admission. An attendance 
upon two courses of lectures, each of twenty weeks, suffices in some 
of them to secure a diploma, under which the holder is authorized 
to begin practicing upon his fellow-citizens. The ' Times ' further 
alleges that in some instances diplomas have been obtained for 
money, or through the personal influence of friends who were on 
good social terms with the professors." 

It is a very singular phenomenon, in a country the people of 
which place so much stress upon the value of public schools, and 
where the State controls them, and requires every child to have an 
education, and where the quality and quantity of the education given 
at schools of certain rank is guaranteed by the State, to see all re- 
sponsibility avoided by the State, with reference to the academical 
or collegiate education of our youth ; this lack of responsibility even 
extends itself to the medical schools, whether connected with col- 
leges or individual institutions. While no very harmful results, 
other than superficialness and snobbishness, have been brought for- 
ward with reference to the universities and colleges from this neglect 
on the part of the State, it is quite the contrary with reference to 
the schools of medicine. As to the universities and colleges, it may 
be truly asserted that, were they State institutions, strongly funded, 
and free from the curse which is making America the laughing- 
stock of nations — politics ; and were teachers appointed on their 
merits, not on account of their connections, science would have been 
much further developed than it is now. 

Some singular results may be observed to follow this neglect of 



394 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

its duties by the State with reference to the medical schools. If a 
young man is a graduate of a certain high-grade public school, and 
applies to a merchant for a position, with his certificate of gradua- 
tion, the latter, if at all posted, is able at once to form an approxi- 
mate idea of the degree of education the youth has acquired, and of 
his fitness for the position he has to offer him. On the contrary, if 
a young graduate of a medical school settles in one's neighborhood, 
and hangs up his sign as an " M. D.," how much do we know ? 
Absolutely nothing, save that we may generally assume he has a di- 
ploma. But until we see it, until we find out, not only from what 
city he came, but frequently from which school in said city, and 
not until we have ourselves investigated into the character and re- 
sponsibility of said school, do we know whether the " M. D." of the 
young man is worth more than the tin it is painted upon. The 
State takes no responsibility in the matter. She is absolutely neg- 
lectful of her duties. Many of the fifty-nine medical schools in this 
country deserve no other destiny than to be immediately closed by 
law as common nuisances — i. e., producers of unqualified vampires, 
destined to prey upon an innocent and trusting community. This 
neglect of the higher education on the part of the State, and leaving 
it entirely to the charity and public spirit of the community, is a 
great mistake, and one which tends largely to the detriment of the 
development of science in this country. It is one of the greatest 
evils of a popular form of government that no great improvement 
or reform can ever take place until the people have first become in 
a measure educated up to it. This retards all movements, unless 
they are so essentially practical that the results by which the public 
are to be benefited " stare them in the face." The rewards of science, 
however, are only developed slowly, and by the labor of countless 
workers. In monarchical or parental forms of government the above 
is not the case. As soon as the government sees that a certain thing 
is necessary to the welfare of the nation, it does it, irrespective of pub- 
lic opinion, which is invariably slow to see the reasons for changes, 
especially when the benefits follow slowly. With reference to their 
medical institutions, there is scarcely a Continental country from 
which we could not learn an immense deal. The governments are, 
in this thing at least, true to the interests of the people, when they 
control the schools and regulate strictly the quality and quantity of 
education of each graduate. With us, as is well known, the contrary 
is the case — " the more the merrier," seems to be the motto of our 
States with reference to the establishment of medical schools ; and 
until public opinion itself demands a change, we may be sure none 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 395 

will take place for years to come, unless our own poor endeavors, 
unaided as they have yet been, succeed in leading the way to a re- 
form which shall extend to the medical schools, by the establishment 
of a veterinary institute upon purely scientific principles. 

It may be axiomatically asserted that it is as much the duty of 
the State to protect its people against incompetently educated men 
and impostors in medicine as it is to protect them against frauds in 
other departments of life. This can only be attained by the State's 
regulating and controlling the entire system of education, and the 
terms of graduation of the medical school or schools within its terri- 
tory. While most parents display a creditable degree of anxiety 
with reference to the education which a son is to acquire when fit- 
ting for a mercantile position in life, it is only too true that many 
parents look upon a medical education as a sort of luxury, and, ut- 
terly regardless of the welfare of their fellow-men, desire their son 
jyut ihroxtgh the medical school in the shortest time and at the 
least expense possible. While there is a certain degree of uniform- 
ity in the printed catalogues issued by the fifty-nine medical schools 
in this country, yet it is very doubtful if the conditions upon which 
diplomas are conferred are held up to by all the schools. In fact, 
experience goes to prove the latter to be the case. In most of them 
the conditions necessary to obtaining the diploma read three years 
of study, two full courses (one year) at some medical school, one of 
which must be at the institution in question. In reality, we have 
here a demand for but three sessions' study in a medical school. As 
these three sessions are supposed to extend over a year and a half, 
one is somewhat at a loss to know what the regulation three years' 
study means. The regulations frequently say " three years' study 
with some regular practitioner," which, if insisted upon, would 
make the full term of study four and a half years ; and, as students 
may graduate at twenty-one years of age, many students would be 
but sixteen and a half years old when beginning the study of medi- 
cine — too young by far for most youths to have acquired that edu- 
cation and drilling in the natural sciences by which alone the study 
of the professional branches can be followed with any profit. The 
" three years with any regular practitioner," whether he be of good 
or irregular standing, may have been a necessity in the early days 
of our history, but is to be looked upon now as a disgrace to any 
civilized nation. It is injurious to the young man, injurious to the 
people, degrading to the profession, and puts incumbrances in the 
way of the scientific advancement of the profession, which will only 
be overcome with immense difficulty, and at the cost of much ill- 



396 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

feeling and great self-denial. It can only succeed in building up a 
class of self-conceited, scarcely semi-educated empirics, who, having 
acquired a certain amount of practical experience in the company 
of Dr. Old Fogy, the much-overestimated ''regular practitioner,", 
look upon the school as an uncomfortable hindrance, which keeps 
them from jumping into a lucrative practice, and which is only to 
be used in order to gain the legitimizing " M. D." with as little 
study and expense as possible. 

There is not a strictly scientific medical school in the United 
States. There are fifty-five too many. The needs of the country 
demand about four large and well-regulated medical institutions ; 
but as this is and will be impossible, it is necessary that we do our 
utmost to reform the existing institutions. To this end, the State 
must assume control of them, as it does of the public schools. The 
corps of teachers should be selected by public competition, and it 
must never be forgotten that not every man who can write well or 
who has distinguished himself in original research is fitted by nature 
to teach. The ability to logically and practically detail the results of 
the world's knowledge is the requisite to be sought in a teacher ; if 
these can be united with great original ability, all the better ; but 
at a school there must be teachers as well as investigators. There 
should be in each State a board of health, the technical members of 
which should also constitute the medical board of examination. 
The members of such boards, as well as the teachers of the medical 
school and other State officers in connection with science, should be 
well paid. It is an American disgrace and misfortune that men of 
great original ability can seldom afford to work for the State. Too 
many such positions are filled by dilettanti — rich men's sons who 
dabble in science, and take such positions for the honor of the 
thing. Or else they are men who, having grown old and experi- 
enced(V), are thought especially suited for such honorable positions; 
whereas the period of combativeness and activity has passed away 
with them. A man is only of use to the world so long as he is com- 
bative. The same is true of our colleges. Men of ability, but poor, 
must seek a living elsewhere, and are obliged to turn their backs 
upon the laboratories they would delight in, and upon institutions 
they would honor, in order to prepare for their old age, while snob- 
bishness and mediocrity too frequently fill the places they should be 
honored with. Hence, we seldom find men of vast scientific ability 
filling the chairs of American colleges. At the medical schools the 
conditions are in general still worse. We find many of the teach- 
ers struggling between their duties to a dangerously sick or dying 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 397 

patient in one part of the city, and an impatient and neglected 
class in the medical school at another part. The scenes of " hur- 
rying to and fro " are often ridiculous in the extreme. It is self- 
evident that the students must suffer. Too many medical schools 
seem only to have been established to give a certain class of ambi- 
tious men a false reputation, and a certain degree of imposability 
before the people. Professor JEsculapius Wormwood is always 
going before the people as a very learned man, while in truth he is 
generally a most consummate humbug, one of his most frequent 
specialties being the removal of parasites, which, like himself, prey 
upon the vitalities of his patients. 

The publications in which most of these medical schools make 
known their respective advantages are certainly as uncreditable to 
scientific institutions as is the ridiculous race for students in which 
nearly all the schools indulge. They are embellished with numer- 
ous striking woodcuts of the main buildings, laboratories, etc., and 
in more ways than one resemble the publications issued by hotel 
proprietors at summer resorts. The promises and opportunities are 
unexceptionable ; but, once having you fairly in their grasp, with 
the fees secured, it matters very little in the one case about the 
intellectual and in the other about the corporal food one gets. 

As I have previously said, the States have not been content with 
chartering one medical school within their respective limits. State 
charters for medical schools seem to be far more easy of attainment 
than liquor-licenses ; in fact, it is very questionable if our inquiries 
as to the character of applicants for the latter are not more strin- 
gent than those which are made with reference to those who would 
originate a school for medical education. The law requires no abso- 
lute testimony of character or ability on the part of persons desiring 
to establish schools for medical education. Our legislators never 
ask, Have we not enough such schools ? They seem to assume that 
the more we have the better, and look upon them from the same 
stand-point as they do institutions for general charity. 

Chapter XXXII, section 1, of the Massachusetts General Stat- 
utes, reads : " Seven or more persons within this State, having asso- 
ciated themselves by agreement in writing for education, charitable, 
or religious purposes, under any name by them assumed, and com- 
plying with the provisions of this chapter [which say nothing as to 
their individual fitness], shall, with their successors, be and remain 
a body politic and corporate." The conditions are the same in 
nearly all our States — at least, I know of no exception to the rule. 
A friend writes me from Philadelphia : "As you are writing upon 



398 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

the establishment of veterinary schools, it may not be inappropriate 
for me to inform you that there are two so-called i colleges ' in this 
city, which are unfortunately chartered by the State. The men 
composing these ' colleges ' are all quacks ; they do not attempt to 
teach anything — were that possible for them — yet they sell diplo- 
mas or degrees to men who wish to practice. It is said they do 
pretend to require a sort of an examination before they issue these 
valuable papers." ... In the city of New York there are three 
chartered, non-regulated veterinary schools. 

Let us endeavor to look for a moment at the results of this purely 
American system of medical institutions : 

1. From the want of uniformity and the lack of responsibility 
on the part of many institutions, the " M. D." of the young graduate 
is rendered next to worthless until we have made inquiries into his 
antecedents. 

2. Most of them being poorly endowed and in many cases beg- 
garly institutions, one may observe a most disgraceful rivalry for 
students, which is borne witness to by the business character of 
their catalogues. 

The entire reason for these disgraceful conditions is to be sought 
in the lack of appreciation for true science which exists not only in 
the profession, but with the people as well. The curse of America 
is her overestimated " practicality." The most unmitigated of 
humbugs is often spoken of as "a man of great practical ability." 
Superficial betokens the Americanism of to-day. Sterling integ- 
rity, which is said to have been a characteristic of our forefathers, 
seems soon to be destined to a place among the lost arts. Fraud 
prevails ! It is nourished, and, if successful, the stigma is soon 
buried beneath the glitter of the externals. The American people 
seem to love fraud. In no other country, unless it be England, can 
disgraceful quacks and humbugs flourish in every department of 
life as they do here. " A free fight and no favor," seems to be the 
motto governing our legislators, who apparently have entirely for- 
gotten that the people they are supposed to represent — which they 
seldom do — are being consumed and plundered by these impostors. 
Humanity, as a whole, is still a babe in " swaddling-clothes." It 
still needs protection from itself. Only a few individuals have as 
yet been able to stand alone ; and still fewer to furnish serviceable 
props for others. The second cause of these evils, with reference 
to the medical schools, must be charged to the State. We have 
too many. Education in them has become a business instead of a 
science. In no State should there be more than one medical school. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 399 

It is a great misfortune that we can not reduce the number to four 
or five large, well-founded, scientifically-founded sectional institu- 
tions, under one system of regulations for the whole country. The 
chartering of special schools for the promulgation of any special 
doctrine, as homoeopathy, or for the education of special classes — 
women — is to be most vigorously condemned. In the first place, the 
fundamentals of medical science are the same, and if, on graduation, 
a practitioner chooses to start off upon a theoretical side-track, it 
matters not to the State. As for special schools for women, that is 
another absurdity. If the women desire to enter into the struggle 
for existence, good : give them a free chance ; bnt, when they do 
this, they must know that they descend from the reverenced throne 
which American women in general sit upon, and that they have 
forfeited all rights to any special consideration as women. They 
must be ready to take the bitter with the sweet, the rough with the 
polished, the profane and vulgar with the chaste : unless they are 
willing to do this, hack to their homesteads ! The Trustees of Har- 
vard College deserve nothing but condemnation in refusing the 
women admittance to their medical school. They say, " Endow 
another and a special school" ; but they entirely fail to say a word 
about its qualifications and restrictions. They certainly know — not 
to their benefit, I think — that the State will charter anything ; but 
they should also know that she as yet exercises no control over the 
chartered organizations. Harvard snobbishness is probably endan- 
gered by petticoatism ; else why this fear ? Who is to protect the 
people against incompetently educated graduates? That matters 
not, so long as Harvard keeps to her exclusiveness. Let the women 
be educated; but, if the legislators and women of Massachusetts 
have their senses with them, let them break down these doors of ex- 
clusiveness and enter Harvard. The men (?) there will be even 
more benefited than the women. It is possible that a true manhood 
might get an opportunity to develop, when women have trimmed 
the skirts of Harvard exclusiveness. 

The first great step toward medical reform in this country is to 
do away with the superfluous schools, by having but one in each 
State ; by having them under the control of the State, represented 
by its board of health as the examining body ; by introducing the 
competitive system in the selection of teachers, and in opening the 
schools to free teaching by young aspirants, from which the com- 
petitors for the special branches are to be finally taken — in fact, in 
making these scientific institutions, instead of empiric hot-houses, 
grinding out yearly the largest possible number of half -educated, 



400 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

half-drilled fledglings. There should be a delegation appointed by 
the board of health of each State, with the consent of the respective 
Governors, to determine upon a universal course of study, to be 
extended over four years, and a national or universal system and 
standard of examination, so that, other things being equal, the 
"M.D." of each school should have a corresponding qualitative and 
quantitative value. Should this much-to-be-desired end prove im- 
possible of attainment, then there is but one course left. It will 
then become the bounden duty of each State to protect the gradu- 
ates of its own school as well as its people from the services of men 
graduating from schools in a neighboring State, or States, where the 
education is not recognized as equal to that in the first-named State. 
Unless they do this, all regulation of the home-school is but non- 
sense. A law will therefore have to be made, by which graduates 
from inferior schools in other States must make the State examination 
in a given State, before they can be allowed to practice as " M. D.'s," 
although the quack and empiric fields are still open to them. No 
graduate should be allowed to practice in any State until he has re- 
ceived a license for the purpose from the State Board of Health. 
A careful record of all licenses should be kept for reference. 

The practice of medicine, or the advertising of practice, or of 
medicines, under false pretenses, should be most stringently regu- 
lated by the State. Several attempts have been made in this direc- 
tion in different States, but in only a few have they been at all suc- 
cessful. Massachusetts holds a most unenviable position in this 
regard. Legislators labor under a great mistake with reference to 
the desires of the medical profession on this point. They assume, 
unjustly, that in some way the profession desire to interfere with the 
rights of the individual to have such medical attendance as he 
chooses to select. While this is not the case; while the profession, 
as represented by its best men, has no desire to institute a medical 
monopoly, it is very questionable if the rights of so-called matured 
persons can be allowed to interfere or trifle with the health of minors 
or irresponsible persons that the accidents of birth have placed in 
their charge. While I may have a certain right, under civil law, to 
poison myself by the use of tobacco or opium, I have no right to 
teach my child the use of such drugs ; in fact, the law would pre- 
vent it, were outsiders to become acquainted with such a purpose 
on my part. It is the same with the employment of the empiric or 
quack. But there is still another side of this question which seems 
to have entirely escaped the attention of legislators. The graduate 
of the school acquires his right to the title " Doctor," or " M. D.," 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 401 

by hard labor and expense. He has, therefore, the right to a cer- 
tain degree of protection, but only with reference to the title. This 
is all he asks. The people are, in general, thoughtless and trust- 
ing ; they scarcely ever stop to question the right of the displayer 
or the advertiser to the title " Doctor," or " M. D." The first is 
much more frequently usurped. It is unquestionably the duty 
of the State to guarantee to the graduated student the exclusive 
use of these titles ; and, also, to make them evidences of real worth 
to the people, that they may then select whom they please, by for- 
bidding the use of them to all other men but graduates who prac- 
tice medicine. This in no way interferes with the freedom of choice 
of the individual, nor does it restrain the quack or empiric from 
practicing the healing art ; but it does reach the necessary end of 
giving the people the means of distinguishing the accredited man 
from the swindler, which is their right, and it will strike a heavy 
blow against fraud in medicine. Forbid, under penalty of the law, 
non-graduated men the use of the title "Doctor," or "M. D.," in 
any way whatsoever, either by sign, card, or advertisement, and we 
at once take away the charm by which they are alone enabled to 
swindle the people. 

In using the words empiric and quack, we should always make a 
distinction. Not every empiric is of necessity a quack, nor is every 
quack an empiric. It is the deportment of the person which makes 
him a quack. There are empirics that have never graduated from 
a school, or even studied at one, but whose conduct can well be 
measured by the strictest code of medical ethics ; such men are not 
and never will be quacks. Quacks are swindlers, misrepresenters 
of facts — promisers of things, such as cures, which they know to be 
impossible. While some empirics are not quacks, there are hun- 
dreds of men claiming to be graduates of licensed schools who are 
quacks of the blackest dye. It is impossible for the law to reach 
these scoundrels. We find them advertising cure-alls in every form. 
This mania for specifics and curative compounds is, I am sorry to 
say, gradually extending to members of the "regular" profession. 
Practitioners' offices are becoming littered up with sample bottles of 

" Dr. 's Yiburnam " and other compounds, which, although 

not patented, are nothing else than quack medicines, being adver- 
tised in the same manner, having on one label the diseases it is sup- 
posed to be good for and on the other the dose. In fact, this evil is 
becoming so extended, that practicing M. D.'s, either too lazy or too 
ignorant to correctly compile a prescription, now frequently write 
" Dr. 's Compound," " one bottle — take as directed." What les- 

26 



402 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

sons are we to draw from the foregoing pages with reference to the 
establishment of veterinary schools in this country ? 

1. It would be an unpardonable sin to curse the people of this 
country with another set of private, unregulated, irresponsible medi- 
cal institutions. 

2. Under such a system of schools the title " Yeterinary Sur- 
geon," or any other to be selected, would be, as it is now, worthless, 
being assumed alike by graduated men, empirics, and veritable 
quacks. 

3. It neither protects the people, by giving them a reliable 
means by which they can distinguish the approved man from the 
impostor, nor does it protect the honest and hard work of the 
school graduate. 

4. It can never, until eternity, answer the manifold needs of the 
country, or produce, what is more needed than in human medicine, 
really scientifically qualified veterinary practitioners, who, while 
capable of attending to the practical demands of the public, are no 
less capable of meeting the scientific requirements of the State, in 
taking an active part in the study of and prevention of those animal 
diseases which carry misery and desolation to mankind, as well as 
threaten their health and life in some cases. 

Equally to be condemned with the above are private veterinary 
schools supported by subscription. They would not deserve any 
additional consideration were it not that this plan has recently re- 
ceived the indorsement of no less an authority than the Universities 
of Pennsylvania and Harvard. 

In considering the development of veterinary medicine, and the 
foundation of the Continental schools, we have endeavored to im- 
press upon the reader the fact that these institutions were estab- 
lished by the respective governments, and have always been con- 
trolled by them, thereby guaranteeing, so far as possible, the quality 
of their graduates to the people. The result has been, that all these 
institutions have been steadily improved, until at the present day, 
and for some thirty years back, many of them have acquired the 
right to be called scientific institutions, though veterinary medi- 
cine has not, in my opinion, yet arrived at that stage in which 
it can be called a science. This remark requires an explanation 
from me. In the great veterinary schools of Europe the scientific 
method of study and research has been more or less perfectly intro- 
duced ; but it has been adopted, almost wholesale, from human 
medicine. Yeterinary medicine has never yet produced a great 
medical thinker. "We have not yet got beyond good observers. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 403 

"When we shall have produced a medical dictator, a Yircliow or a 
Bichat, who will revolutionize all medical thought, or at least reform 
it, it will be time enough for us to speak of an individual veterinary 
science ; and not till then will there be any such thing. Until then 
we shall be nothing more than a parasite drawing our best nourish- 
ment from human medicine — although, at present, w T e are making 
brave efforts to stand on our own feet. 

Another fact, which is well worthy the attention of the citizens 
of the most " practical " land in the world, is — not one of these Con- 
tinental schools pays in the American sense; i. e., they yield no 
direct dividends. We have seen that the Berlin school exceeded its 
income, in 1878-'Y9, by some $16,600. But, while yielding no di- 
rect returns in money, their indirect returns have benefited their 
respective countries and the world at large to such a degree that 
we can not estimate it in dollars and cents. To the teachers at these 
Continental schools do the veterinarians of Britain and America owe 
the greater part of the material of which their text-books are com- 
posed. To whom do we owe the greater part of our knowledge 
with reference to the contagious and infectious animal pests ? To 
whom but Continental veterinarians ! The names of Hering, Hert- 
wig, Haubner, Roell, Briickin tiller, Chauveau, Keynal, Bouley, Col- 
lin, Leisering, Wehenkel, Schuetz, Feser, and many others, are fast 
becoming as well known to English-speaking people, thanks to the 
efforts of Mr. Fleming, as they are to those of the Continent. 

It is of the utmost importance to us, as American citizens, to in- 
quire why it is that this valuable information has been gained by 
Continental veterinarians, to the exclusion of those of Britain. The 
answer is simple, and one which it is the duty of every American 
to study earnestly. 

These schools are so established, and the teachers so car ef idly 
selected, and their present and future welfare so well cared for {for 
they are moderately paid during active life, and liberally pensioned 
when the period of decay comes on), that they can give their entire en- 
ergies to the proper instruction of students and to scientific research. 

These grand results can never be hoped for in countries where 
there are only to be found private, uncontrolled, and irresponsible 
schools — in proof of which we have already noticed the medical 
schools of this country, and have yet to consider the veterinary 
school at London, the representative one of Britain, on the sub- 
scription principle. 

In sketching briefly the history of some of the principal veteri- 
nary schools of Europe, it must have been noticed that we omitted 



404 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

to speak of those of Britain. We neglected them for two reasons ; 
first, because the London school, which we select as the best repre- 
sentative, has never jet deserved to be classed with those of the 
Continent ; and, secondly, because it has been especially quoted as a 
favorable example of the " subscription plan " for the support of 
such schools. 

In Britain we find directly opposite conditions to those of the 
Continent. Here we find the Government strangely blind to the 
interests and welfare of the people. America, the child, nobly fol- 
lows the ignoble example of the mother. Britain has allowed her 
noted and valuable flocks and herds to be repeatedly decimated by 
pests without taking a single step to educate properly qualified vet- 
erinarians. Here we find no state responsibility ; no state regulating 
the standard of education at the schools ; no critical selection of 
teachers ; no contribution to their support, by means of which the 
discovery and improvement of methods for checking and preventing 
the ravages of animal pests may be hoped for. 

Being myself so bitter an opponent of both private and even 
state schools for the education of veterinarians, it may appear fairer 
for me to let a less partial judge speak for me on these matters. 

Mr. George Fleming says : * "It was not, however, until 1792 
that England had a veterinary school [established by Saint-Bell, a 
Frenchman], but this was of a private and speculative character ; 
deriving no benefit from the state [and conferring none upon it], but 
allowed to push its own way from the fluctuating support or patron- 
age of private subscribers and the fees of students." This school 
succeeds, at present, in the American sense — it pays. The director 
and some of the leading teachers — they call themselves professors, 
without ever having done anything worthy of the name — enjoy fat 
salaries, in return for which they energetically oppose every sugges- 
tion for improvements which could only be to the advantage of the 
Government and the people. 

It is probably unknown to most of the readers of this book that 
certain representative gentlemen of Pennsylvania, or, more correctly 
expressed, Philadelphia, as well as the authorities of Harvard Uni- 
versity in Massachusetts, have lately displayed quite an active zeal 
in the cause of veterinary medicine. It would have been better for 
them, better for their States, infinitely better for the whole country, 
had they taken greater care to acquaint themselves with the history 
of veterinary medicine and its results in other countries than Eng- 
land, before giving to the public " An Appeal to the Citizens of 

* "Animal Plagues," p. 176. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 405 

Pennsylvania for the Foundation of a Veterinary Department in 
the University of Pennsylvania " (Philadelphia, 1879) * The " Ap- 
peal" is issued by the "Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals." It begins thus : 

" To the Citizens of Pennsylvania. 

" By resolution of the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I have been re- 
quested to call your attention to the pressing need there is, at the 
present time, for some well-organized system of teaching veterinary 
medicine and surgery to those who are willing and anxious to avail 
themselves of such instruction. There is no veterinary college in 
active operation in this State [and there is absolutely no call for 
one ; in fact, the teachings of the history of veterinary medicine em- 
phatically forbid it, as I shall presently show. — B.] In New York 
State and elsewhere [where?] much attention is being given [the 
State of New York per se gives none] to this subject, and the veteri- 
nary practice of medicine is taught in some colleges [which produce 
a class of semi-educated wolves, called empirics]. During January, 
1878, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania passed resolu- 
tions looking toward the establishment of a veterinary department 
as soon as money could be obtained to defray the expense. The 
Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has 
made a study [a very limited one] of the methods of effecting some 
organization to bring about so desirable an end, and has held com- 
munication with a committee appointed by the trustees of the uni- 
versity having charge of this branch of science. 

" The Hon, John "Welsh, our minister at the court of St. James, 
writes from London under date of February 26, 1879, to Dr. "Will- 
iam Pepper, of this city : ' At this moment, the importance of well- 
instructed men in this [veterinary] branch of medical science is par- 
ticularly prominent, for the opinions of the Privy Council in regard 
to the American live-cattle trade are entirely controlled by them. 
The diseases of animals are becoming of great interest to the pub- 
lic, and for some years past the efforts of the English Government 
have been directed toward ' stamping out ' rinderpest, pleuropneu- 
monia, and other contagious diseases among cattle, sheep, and swine. 
[With but very limited success, as can easily be seen by studying the 
history of these efforts, and reading the correspondence and edito- 
rials in the " Veterinary Journal " of London. There is little better 

* The criticisms which are here made are equally applicable to the attempt of Har- 
vard University to establish the same kind of a humbug school at Boston. 



406 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

organized effort in this direction in England than in this country. 
Glanders runs free over the land, and quacks treat it on all sides as 
they do here, openly defying whatever law may exist against it. — B.] 
At this time there seems to be great probability that the live-cattle 
trade with the United States will be suspended, because one cargo 
of oxen which landed here about a month ago had thirteen cases of 
pleuropneumonia, although some eighty thousand were brought 
here before, and some three thousand since, in good health.' " The 
" Appeal " goes on, saying, " The offer made by the University of 
Pennsylvania should not be permitted to fail for want of means to 
carry out its wise and humane project." 

Then follows the plan proposed whereby to raise the necessary 
funds, which is fraught with still greater danger to the future' of 
American veterinary science than even State veterinary schools. In 
fact, the gentlemen issuing this " Appeal " know so little about the 
subject upon which they have written, that I must seriously warn 
every public-spirited American against being influenced by them. 
They have become filled with a grand idea, and then, with most in- 
complete preparation, have, as the Germans would say, " let loose " 
upon it : 

" In order that the burden of this project may fall as lightly as 
possible on the charitable-minded citizens of this Commonwealth, a 
plan has been agreed upon [a poorer could not have been selected] 
whereby each contributor may receive an ample equivalent for the 
money he will invest in this laudable undertaking. [Where the 
burden upon the charitable-minded citizens is then to come in, I, for 
one, fail to see. Self-interest, not patriotism, not love of animals, 
not interest in the development of science, and an honest pride in 
the reputation of one's country in this regard, is made the basis of 
this ' Appeal.' ] It is proposed to establish a rule such as is in force 
in connection with the Royal Yeterinary College of London [a 
school which has done nothing for students or for the advancement 
of veterinary science in England, but, like ' a dog in the manger,' 
has opposed every attempt at progress, as I shall sufficiently demon- 
strate from the most trustworthy English authority]. 

" Each subscriber of one hundred dollars is to be known as a 
life-subscriber, and is, in return for his subscription, to be entitled 
to certain advantages. Thus : he is entitled to accommodation in 
the infirmary so far as space will permit, and in preference to non- 
subscribers [who, being of the poorer classes, are to be excluded, 
and, as their animals also offer much better opportunities for the 
clinical study of the student, the latter is to suffer, as he does in 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 407 

London, for the benefit of the ' charitably-minded ' owner of fine 
horses, who finds it as cheap, or cheaper, to send a horse ' a little 
off ' to the school for a week or so, than to keep it at home], for 
such animals, his own property [an occasional horse belonging to a 
friend will not be objected to, the professors are so accommodating ; 
and if they are Dot, they will not know it], as may need medical or 
surgical treatment, at a price to be fixed, closely approximating the 
actual cost of feed and care. He may also demand free examina- 
tion of ten horses or mules each year, as to soundness, with a view 
to purchase. He can also secure free advice in case of animals 
brought to the infirmary, but which he proposes to keep in his own 
stables or kennels. Rules and regulations looking toward the pro- 
tection of the university and subscribers will be made, to prevent 
abuse of these privileges, and firms will be permitted to register as 
subscribers on the condition of one member only being named to 
act as the representative of the firm, in its correspondence with the 
authorities of the veterinary department." 

The worthy President of the P. C. A. Society must have had 
some adviser more interested in becoming a "professor" than in the 
future of his profession, or the welfare of his brother practitioners, 
when he penned the above lines. It is with extreme regret that I 
feel myself, as a devoted servant to my countrymen, obliged to most 
earnestly oppose the above " appeal and plan " in its most essential 
parts. It contains many words of wisdom and truth, and is deserv- 
ing the earnest study of every patriotic American ; but the above 
plan, if carried out, would lead to the establishment of a school run 
entirely in the interests of a select number of subscribers, opposed to 
those investigations by which science is alone advanced, conserva- 
tive in the worst form, opposing always the interests of its own 
graduates by keeping up a constant opposition in practice which the 
private practitioner is unable to compete with. 

The " Appeal " is made nominally " to the citizens of Pennsylva- 
nia," but it will virtually result, if at all successful, in an " appeal " 
to those persons who alone are by the " plan " to derive the benefits, 
viz., the well-to-do and wealthy horse-owners and large firms of 
Philadelphia alone. 

"What interests have the citizens of Pennsylvania or Massachu- 
setts in an institution, the direct benefits of which are only accessi- 
ble to the residents of Philadelphia or Boston, or their immediate 
vicinity ? I could fill a small book with the testimonies of British 
veterinarians of unquestioned reputation with regard to the futility 
and injuriousness of the above plan, and the injury which the quoted 



408 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION". 

London school has been to the British veterinary profession, but will 
limit myself to some remarks from the most eminent veterinarian of 
England. My esteemed friend and colleague, Mr. George Fleming, 
expresses himself in the " Veterinary Journal," London, in an 
editorial in the November number for 1879, vol. ix, p. 318, as fol- 
lows: 

" Our readers will have observed that for some months an agi- 
tation has been going on among the members of the veterinary pro- 
fession, chiefly metropolitan practitioners, with reference to the un- 
fair competition maintained toward them by the Royal Veterinary 
College {London) known as the ■ subscription system.' As is well 
known, and as so many veterinary surgeons find to their cost, that 
school advertises that for two guineas a year it will examine twenty 
horses for soundness, give advice with regard to an unlimited num- 
ber, receive into the school-hospital and treat sick horses, as well as 
sell medicine at cost price, shoe horses for a smaller sum than the 
ordinary farrier can, etc., while for five guineas per annum an in- 
definite number of horses will be examined, and all other privileges 
guaranteed. In fact, it offers to do what no practitioner could afford 
to do, and undersells its own students to such an extent that it is not 
only impossible for them to compete with the cheap establishment, 
but the bread is actually taken from their mouths by this so-called 
Alma Mater of theirs. It has been said by some political historian 
that the French Revolutions eat up their own children. The London 
Veterinary School does this, and more ; for it first charges them 
heavy fees for teaching, then starves and swallows them. The sys- 
tem can certainly boast of a long history. The school was com- 
menced as a subscription establishment by an obscure agricultural 
society, nearly ninety years ago ; but then it only had ignorant and 
illiterate farriers to compete with, and two guineas in those days 
were very much more than they are now. 

" Had the school never been begun on this system, there can be no 
doubt that later it must have been established by the country for the 
benefit of the country. In this case veterinary medicine would have 
all along stood in a very different position to what it has done and 
does now, and millions of pounds would probably have been saved. 
The ' subscription system ' [proposed at Philadelphia] has undoubt- 
edly proved a most serious drawback to veterinary science in Eng- 
land, as history proves. The school has done little if anything to 
promote that science ; it has never produced a scientific teacher, and 
never will on its present footing / its teachers have been little more 
than practitioners, whose principal functions were to ■ doctor ' sub- 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 409 

scribers 1 horses, or to attend to subscribers' interests / the students 
who entered the school have suffered all along from their and sub- 
scribers' 1 interests clashing, and of clinical instruction there has been 
none worthy of the name, as the subscribers' horses could not be 
made available, and no others were admitted within the gates : nei- 
ther in the form of text-books, nor in other ways, has the school bene- 
fited the prof ession, and its existence as a scientific institution 
IS ignored by other countries. 

" The teachers, to exist, have been compelled, it would appear, to 
practice their profession beyond the walls of the school, and thus 
neglect the students, who seem to be only a secondary consideration 
in the speculation, and are chiefly valued as contributors of fees. 

" A desire to get hold of money has been the bane of the school, 
as it has been its chief aim / hence the degrading ' subscription 
system? and the determination to continue and extend it, no mat- 
ter who suffers, whether it deprives the veterinary surgeon or the 
blacksmith of their means of livelihood. [The universities of Har- 
vard and Pennsylvania would plant this British parasite on our 
shores, and, if the thing ' paid,' numerous other associations of 
less responsibility and respectability would be sure ' to follow 
suit and trump,' so easy is it in this country for everything and 
everybody to get a ' charter.'] Surely the noblemen and gentle- 
men who lend their names and patronage to these schools are 
not aware of the fact that it is not a scientific institution, nor 
yet a college, but merely and mainly a great co-operative horse- 
doctoring and horseshoeing concern, devised to benefit wealthy sub- 
scribers, having nothing to do with the introduction of humane or 
i?npjwed methods of treating diseases or accidents, and doing its 
business on shamefully cheap principles ! [Certainly the trustees 
of the universities mentioned must have been most lamentably de- 
ceived or wofully ignorant when they consented to the adoption of 
the subscription plan.] 

" We may be told that the ' subscription system ' is necessary to 
the existence of the establishment, and that without it it must per- 
ish of inanition. If such a statement is correct — and we do not deny 
its correctness — then it reveals a very discreditable state of affairs. 
]No other veterinary school in these islands requires to resort to such 
ignoble stratagem to live ; no medical school does or dares to under- 
sell practicing physicians or surgeons ; in fact, the London Veterinary 
College is the only medical or veterinary school in Europe which, 
like a huge parasite, lives and grows at their expense, past and present. 

" Not only does the subscription system most seriously injure the 



410 TEE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

practice of the metropolitan practitioner, it also affects the provincial 
veterinary surgeon, as subscribers are all over the country, and avail 
themselves of the degradingly cheap services offered by the school. 

" It is impossible for any one who cares for the reputation and 
advancement of veterinary medicine in this country, and the de- 
served prosperity of its practitioners, not to sympathize with the 
movement which has been begun, even at this late period. 

" The cheap subscription system has been the curse of our science, 
and its malignant influence can be traced through long years and in 
many directions. It is unprofessional, in every sense of the term, 
is derogatory and damaging to veterinary medicine, most injurious 
to metropolitan and suburban practitioners — its own alumni — in 
every way disadvantageous to the students, and a discredit to the 
governors of the school and the country. Had the profession not 
been for so many years blind to its own best interest, surely the 
action [for reform] now commenced would have been begun long 
ago." 

When the above was written I.did not know that a striking ex- 
ample of the injurious effects of this subscription plan would be so 
soon offered to public consideration. The following letter needs no 
further comments on my part : 

Harvard Veterinary School. — An Open Letter. 

To the President and Overseers of Harvard College. 

Gentlemen : A question which has been and still is troubling 
the minds of the thinking members of the veterinary profession is, 
" What purpose had Harvard in establishing a Veterinary Depart- 
ment in connection with the Medical School f " Was it to educate 
young men to become creditable members of a profession which 
should rank as high as human medicine in the public mind, or was 
it to run an animal hospital on a strictly business basis ? 

The first sermon that I have any remembrance of listening to 
was by that most eminent preacher, Dr. Bartol. I probably remem- 
ber it on account of the striking nature of the text, which was, 
" 'Twon't pay." Now, sermonizing is not exactly my forte ; never- 
theless, I am going to try and show you that you have started upon 
a course that " won't pay " in the establishment of your veterinary 
school. 

" 'Twon't pay " for you as the head of the leading educational 
institution of our State to establish any new branch of education 
upon anything but the best possible foundation. You would not 
be American if you endeavored to open this department on any- 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 411 

thing but a paying lasts. Unless a thing pays its expenses, it is an 
utterly unpractical venture in this land of eminent practicality. 

But medical schools and business enterprises can not be looked 
upon from the same stand-point. A business enterprise is a private 
affair, undertaken to make money ; if it " won't pay," it goes under. 
A medical school is an educational affair ; whether it " pays " in 
money or not is a matter of no importance whatever. It is a public 
servant, just the same as the public schools. The only dividend the 
public can expect to receive is that the graduates of the school are 
thoroughly educated in both the scientific and practical parts of their 
profession. Naturally, it remains for you, as the founders of this 
movement, to endeavor to find some means by which you can make 
such an institution pay its way. 

To do this you have adopted the London plan of " subscrip- 
tions," by which, for a minimum sum of money per year, you prom- 
ise to render services to each subscriber which no private practitioner 
could afford to guarantee to do for three times the amount. In 
adopting this subscription plan you have yet to learn that you can 
not, as overseers of a great public institution, afford to do what a 
private speculative affair like the London School has done, though 
not without the greatest opposition from its own graduates. 

Gentlemen, you have yet to know that it " won't pay " for you 
to draw down upon your most worthy and necessary undertaking 
the opposition and ill will, not only of the few educated members 
of the veterinary profession of the present day, but of all time, in- 
cluding every man that graduates from your school. 

The time will surely come when other members of the profession 
will openly oppose the plan upon which you are conducting this 
venture. Gentlemen, your advisers were bad. They knew no more 
about the establishment of a veterinary school than an iron-foundry, 
perhaps not half as much. 

They had but one purpose in view, and that was self, not Har- 
vard College or the State. I look upon this " subscription plan," 
as carried out by you, as disgraceful to Harvard College, and as 
bound to exert a most baneful influence, by its example, on the 
future of American veterinary medicine. 

I have said your advisers were not the men they should be, and 
I now tell you that it " won't pay " to let them conduct the school 
in the manner they are now doing. 

What are you trying to give us, gentlemen — a medical school for 
the best possible education of veterinarians, or an institution for the 
development of English " flunkeyism " on American soil ? One 



412 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

would think the latter ! The people can rightly hold you responsi- 
ble for the public acts of your subordinates. 

In the Boston " Sunday Globe," of some two weeks since, ap- 
peared an article upon your Yeterinary Department, which I make 
bold to assert was a disgrace to Harvard College, and outdoes the 
advertisements of any of the noted medical humbugs and fraudu- 
lent hospitals of quacks in Boston or any other city. 

This advertisement reads thus : 

SICK HORSES' PARADISE. 

THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY VETERINARY HOSPITAL. 

Accommodations for Patients in the New Building on Village Street. 
Pronounced Success of the Latest Harvard Enterprise. 

" ' Our horders is wery strict 'ere, sir, not to hadmit any one vith- 
out permission. 'Fraid you'll 'ave to wait for the doctor, sir.' 

" Thus spoke one of the grooms at the Harvard University Yet- 
erinary Hospital to a ' Globe ' reporter yesterday, when he rang at 
the office-door. 

" ' Both of the doctors be avay just now, sir, but we hexpects 
them back directly '—and at that moment Dr. Charles P. Lyman, 
F. R. C. Y. S., the professor in veterinary medicine and chief sur- 
geon of the hospital, drove up and alighted from his English dog- 
cart, while his English driver conducted his English horse into the 
stable. Once inside, and the air of this excellent branch of fair 
Harvard is oppressively English. It has been established a little over 
a year, and actual work in the department, at least the hospital part, 
has been in progress only since August 10th. Such an institution 
is a novelty in Boston." 

" Such an institution is a novelty " ; indeed it is, gentlemen — a 
" novelty " which, as an American citizen, I am very sorry to see 
engrafted upon Massachusetts soil. 

Again, in the Boston " Herald " is an advertising column headed 
" Horses, Carriages, etc." This column has become noted all over 
the United States for advertisements of the very worst set of "horse 
sharps " that infest any city in the country. Somewhere we have 
heard that " a man is known by the company he keeps." You will 
learn yet, gentlemen, that " 'twon't pay " to have an advertisement 
of your school appear, as it does, in such a column and in company 
with such advertisements. 

What does it show you, gentlemen ? It should demonstrate to 
you the utter unfitness of the man for the place whom you have 
honored with the position of head of this department. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY INSTITUTE. 



413 



Are you conducting this hospital for the benefit of the school, or 
for that of the veterinarians attached to it ? Undoubtedly you say, 
" For the school ! " Then why allow them to use the name of Har- 
vard University in order to gain private practice ? Is such conduct 
in accordance with medical ethics ? 

In this " Herald "advertisement, as well as those appearing in 
other papers, you may read, " Calls for outside visits will be attended 
to promptly by day or night." I may be Quixotic, but it is my 
opinion that no one connected as teacher with such a school can, as 
a professional, make such a use of his position. 

Again : Is it an honorable thing for you to cut prices, for ser- 
vices at your hospital, 100 per cent less than the regular practitioner 
charges J less than those your own graduates will have to charge 
in order to 7iiake a living, or to keep on collegiate terms with other 
professionals ? 

In this regard I would call your attention to the following : 



RATES OF CHARGES AT VILLAGE STREET HOS- 
PITAL." 



RATES OF CHARGES MADE BY THE REGULAR 
PROFESSION. 

Single visits, medicine extra. ... $3 00 

Eepeated visits to any case — 

cow, horse, or dog, each 2 00 

All operations extra ; no horse 

cast less than 5 00 

These charges have reference to city 

proper. 



Board, treatment, and medicine, 
for sick horses per day $2 00 

Board, care, and medicine for 

surgical cases — horse, per day, 1 00 

Board, treatment, and medicine 
for dogs per day 50 

Board and treatment for cattle 
per day 1 00 

Examinations and advice at hos- 
pital 1 00 

What is meant by " examination and advice at hospital " ? Do 
you mean examination for soundness, for which the profession 
charges $5 for each horse examined ? In your contract with sub- 
scribers for $10 per year you agree to examine ten horses and do 
other professional work — in other words, you agree to do, for this 
paltry sum, work for which any professional would receive $50 for 
examinations for soundness alone. 

Gentlemen, this looks very much as if you were trying to run 
the veterinary profession of Boston and vicinity into the ground. 

What would you think of a father who, after having taught a 
son all about his business, and that son had started in business for 
himself, should cut the prices of goods in this manner ? You would 
say it was abominable. Should the son pay for his instruction and 
devote three years of his life to learning the trade when he might 
be earning money at something else, you would say that the actions 



414: THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

of the father were more than abominable ; yet this is exactly what 
you are doing. 

When we see the University of Harvard, of which we rightfully 
expected so much, taking a stand far below that of any of the pri- 
vate schools of New York, or anywhere else, we can not find words 
to express what we consider is but righteous indignation. 

By public discussion of many writers the field has been prepared 
for you, but you have only gathered the chaff and left the wheat for 
others to gather. 

The University of Pennsylvania is setting a good example by 
proceeding slowly in this matter. She will beat you in the race of 
providing a really good school unless you " tack ship " and " come 
round " on a more " weatherly course." * 

Every word which President Eliot spoke about the work of a 
medical school in his late address at the dedication of the new 
building is applicable to the Yeterinary Department ; but not one 
is being applied. He spoke of the necessity of gathering funds 
to pursue the work. With regard to this veterinary school, the mat- 
ter has never been written up in the papers as it should have been 
done ; no public interest has ever been awakened. Had the ques- 
tion been taken up and publicly advocated, we know of what we 
speak in saying that a permanent fund of at least $100,000 could 
have been raised, and not with any great amount of labor. 

The Tillage Street Hospital is a serious mistake, though it can 
yet be turned to advantage for the school. The accommodations at 
Bussy Farm are, or can easily be made, much better suited to a hos- 
pital clinic than the city place. Charenton, Alf ort, is much farther 
from Paris than Bussy Farm from Boston proper, yet the hospital 
there is always full enough, and at Bussy there would be no diffi- 
culty in getting from seventy-five to one hundred patients in the 
hospital the greater part of the year. There are a class of patients 
that can pay expenses, which no practitioner really wants, and which 
are essentially fitted for school instruction. These you could easily 
have, and without in any way antagonizing the veterinary profession. 
In fact, they would cheerfully assist you. 

At Tillage Street you have not the necessary conveniences for a 
free clinic ; you should have a shed to protect the horses and men 

* With reference to the University of Pennsylvania, it would seem that our words 
have not fallen upon barren ground. Under the date of January 8, 1884, the dean of the 
Veterinary Department wrote me : " /, like you, am absolutely opposed to any subscription 
plan, and expect to run a large hospital and clinic without it." From which we may as- 
sume that it has been dropped for this school. 



STATE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 415 

from the weather, and a paved and unpaved run upon which to lead 
horses in order to examine them for lameness. A pathological labo- 
ratory is as necessary as an anatomical laboratory. This you have 
not at either place. Nor have you a single man capable of teaching 
pathological anatomy, the great weakness of veterinary medicine, 
and practically adapting it to the needs of veterinary students. To 
do this requires a practical knowledge of the diseases of animals, 
and a most exact knowledge of human and zoopathology, so far as 
the latter is written up. With regard to the Village Street Hospi- 
tal, the money is not wasted, for the building can be let for stable- 
purposes, and yield a better income than the money it cost would. 
This income could be available to pay some of the expenses at Bussy. 
The students must necessarily waste much time in going between 
the three localities where they are to receive instruction. 

The veterinary profession of the country earnestly desire the 
success of your venture, but not as at present conducted. 

Summing up, then, let me say : " 'Twon't pay" to take a dishon- 
orable course in conducting your venture. 

" 'Twon't pay " to allow your teachers to use the fair name of Har- 
vard College to advertise themselves in order to gain private practice. 

" 'Twon't pay " to place the school before the public as a trans- 
planted weed taken from English ground, with all the evils of Brit- 
ish flunkeyism. 

'Twill pay in every way to drop all these things, and act in ac- 
cordance with the most exact principles of medical ethics. 

'Twill pay to respect the feelings and position of every member 
of the American veterinary profession. 

Trusting these words will be received as they are written, in the 
true interest of Harvard Veterinary School, and the future of the 
veterinary profession, I remain your obedient servant. 



STATE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 

In the previous section, it has been my endeavor to show the 
folly of private schools for the study of medicine, and that the evils 
connected with them were largely due to neglect of its duties on 
the part of the State. 

¥e come now to speak of well-endowed — either by public spirit 
or otherwise — institutions in each State, but in all respects con- 
trolled by the State. 



416 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

The question we have to consider is one of expediency, not of 
State-rights. !No one denies the right of each State to a veterinary 
school if properly endowed and controlled. What I do, however, 
emphatically assert is, that such a system is not in the interests of the 
citizens of any one State, section, or whole country. There are some 
thirty-eight States in our Union at present, with every prospect of a 
constant numerical increase for many years to come. Being now 
thirty-eight, if this plan were to be carried out, there would be that 
number of schools. Even though these schools were regulated by the 
respective States, one may positively assert that there would be even 
less uniformity in reference to the term of study and examination 
requisite than at present nominally exists in the numerous private 
medical schools. It is useless to suppose there would be much if 
any uniformity. The legislators in the different States would never 
look upon these questions with such unanimity as to lead to any 
great similarity between the schools. In fact, as the case at present 
stands, there are scarcely any legislators, among the great number 
of men at present occupying such positions in the different States, 
that are sufficiently educated with reference to the history of veteri- 
nary medicine to legislate sensibly upon the subject. Another ar- 
gument, and one of the strongest, is, that unanimity in veterinary 
schools is even more necessary than in human. Unless it exists — 
unless the education and term of study are the same in each State — 
how will it ever be possible to attain that oneness of purpose in all 
States which we have shown to be absolutely necessary for the con- 
trol and prevention of animal pests? This absolutely necessary 
end will never be attained by State schools. State schools can turn 
out good practitioners, but, for the above reasons, they would never 
turn out men properly educated for State purposes. State schools 
would mean State laws ; yet every one who knows anything admits 
that State laws for the purpose we are considering would be almost 
worse than useless. The manner of instruction would vary; the 
students would be led to look upon the pathology of the contagious 
disease from too many stand-points. "We should soon have the coun- 
try divided up into about as many opposing cliques as there were 
schools, each jealous of the supremacy of the other, and, although 
State schools, we should find the contemptible rivalry for students 
which now disgraces the medical schools. There being no hope that 
the standard of education would be the same in each State, cer- 
tain States would have to make laws to protect the graduates from 
their own schools against the competition of graduates of inferior 
schools in neighboring States. Further, there are not competent 



STATE VETERINARY SCHOOLS. 417 

men in the whole world, who can be had at any price, to furnish 
teachers enough for two new and thoroughly organized veterinary 
schools. In fact, even for one national school, we shall find it hard 
to procure the requisite number of scientifically educated and com- 
petent teachers. I have scarcely seen a veterinarian in this country 
whom I would call to fill a chair in a veterinary school. There are some 
who are well enough practically, but when we come to seek the scien- 
tific foundation, united with a healthy skepticism (by that I mean a 
critical mind, and with ability for original research, united to the great- 
est necessity of all, ability to teach), we shall find it hard to discover 
enough English-speaking men the world over suitable to our purposes. 
It has suddenly dawned upon some people in power in this coun- 
try that veterinarians are necessary. In one State, at least, they are 
already preparing a mill for grinding them out even faster than 
they do doctors in the medical mills. This unenviable State is Iowa. 
There they propose a State school which shall turn out graduates 
after eighteen months' study. " These graduates must be eighteen 
years of age, and have completed the entire course of study." To 
illustrate how much these Solons know, and to prove my assertion 
that but few, if any, legislators in this country are at present suffi- 
ciently instructed upon this subject to legislate properly, we are in- 
formed that the " sessions begin the first of March (each year) and 
continue till the latter part of November, with a vacation of two 
weeks in July." If one is to judge from the above, the students 
are either not to study any anatomy, or the laws of Nature are 
different in Iowa from other places in the same latitude, for every- 
where else the time especially devoted to the study of anatomy is 
between November and March ; but here we see the school does 
not continue in operation between November and March, or per- 
haps these are hot months in Iowa, and putrefaction, etc., prevent 
the students studying anatomy, so that it is studied in the months 
between March and November, excepting two weeks in July, 
when the students are probably dismissed on account of the ex- 
tremely cold weather. The published " curriculum " of this school, 
which appeared in a pamphlet called the " College Quarterly," is 
one of the most amusing yet saddening proofs of human imbecil- 
ity it has ever been my lot to read. This school was to be opened 
March, 18S0, yet in September, 1879, the writer of this "curricu- 
lum" uses the present tense, and tells us what the future stu- 
dents are already doing ; among other things, " hundreds of ani- 
mals are presented at the hospital for examinations " held at the 
school " one half day each week." 
27 



418 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

It will be remembered that the Berlin school has the largest 
clinic of any school in the world, yet we never saw " hundreds of 
animals " at any one day in the school hospital or free clinics ; al- 
though the number upon the grounds on a given day might, inclu- 
sive of dogs, be about two hundred and fifty. Yet a small Western 
town (Ames, Iowa) is to furnish " hundreds " of patients for clinical 
exercises which take place " one half day each iveek" Among other 
wonderful accessories of this school is a pair of " scales, capable of 
weighing one twenty-thousandth of a gramme " — a thing beyond the 
present range of human ability. The faculty of this Iowa veteri- 
nary abortion consists of seven persons, only two of whom seem to 
know anything of medicine, and one only of veterinary medicine. 
This latter prodigy is the graduate of a Canadian school, and I make 
bold to say that the president of it would not dare affirm that he 
gives an education suitable to prepare men for teachers. This man, 
whom the editor of the " National Live-Stock Journal " describes 
as " a young man with comparatively little experience as a veteri- 
nary surgeon," is supposed to head this institution, so far as the vet- 
erinary profession finds any representation. He is to teach the 
whole of veterinary medicine, which includes the following techni- 
cal branches : General pathology, general surgery, special pathology 
and therapeutics of all the diseases of domestic animals ; pathologi- 
cal anatomy, special surgery, operative surgery and practice ; the 
pathology of the contagious animal diseases and their prevention 
(veterinary hygiene and police), forensic medicine (veterinary), ob- 
stetrics, horseshoeing, veterinary history, and meat and market in- 
spection — and conduct the clinics, and, according to the curriculum, 
also attend to a " large practice, which the students will have the 
privilege of assisting in." I have heard of such a thing as a " ser- 
vant of all work" ; the great Boerhaave was the man^ar excellence 
in this regard so far as medicine is concerned, but we think even 
his spirit must be tortured with envy at the supposed ability of this 
young man " of comparatively little practical experience." The work 
this prodigy is expected to do can not be well done by less than eight 
specialists, and they supported by eight more specialists in the dif- 
ferent natural sciences which are necessary to the comprehension of 
the purely professional branches. If this school is not even a 
" humbug " before its opening, then I fail to know the meaning of 
the word. I must say that the adjoining States have no other 
course than to order a severe quarantine against the graduates of this 
school. The old-school empirics, the empirics of years, of which 
we have so many, will be found far more worthy of confidence than 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 419 

the eighteen-? ear-old graduates of this veterinary sprouting-house. 
It seems to me that no other evidence is needed to show the fallacy 
of State schools, for here we have one in optima forma, chartered, 
funded, and controlled by the State. Suppose the thirty-seven 
other States should all follow suit, each after its own fashion! 
Doubtless some would be found thinking one year's study would be 
sufficient, others thinking two, while in some isolated cases ex- 
tremely wise legislators might insist upon three ; but I am not yet 
ready to believe that our people have got very far beyond the idea 
that " anything is good enough for a horse-doctor." At least, the 
experiences of daily life continually confirm me in that opinion. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 

Foe advocating this idea, the president of the Iowa abortion de- 
clares me to be "visionary," whereas I think about all there is in his 
contemplated school is the result of a vision of something else than 
the teachings of veterinary history. Another remarkable critique 
declares me to be " lacking in a knowledge of public affairs " ; to 
which, if he means American politics, I plead guilty, and trust I 
may continue so. 

Some four years ago, I was myself a firm friend of State 
schools ; finally, the evils of such a system became so conspicuous 
that I thought sectional schools would be better ; but the earnest 
study of all the peculiar relations of veterinary science to the public 
wants finally convinced me that they could only be most profitably 
adjusted by one school. My whole purpose in educating myself es- 
pecially for this work has been to serve my country to the best de- 
gree possible. "What Continental governments do for the people, by 
educating young men especially for the positions of teaahers, and 
sending them to study in foreign countries, I have done at my own 
expense, not only of money, but almost of my life. Therefore I 
feel I have a right to speak as one having authority. Naturally, I 
expect opposition, but my opponents should have arguments instead 
of mere words or accusations wherewith to show I am wrong. 
There is no need of being in a hurry in this matter. " Haste will 
make waste," as surely as the people of the different States go heed- 
lessly forward, and endeavor to inaugurate veterinary schools upon 
erroneous principles, such as those adopted at Harvard and Phila- 



420 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

delphia, but which will produce an even more damaging failure in 
Iowa. 

To every man who would faithfully serve his race and his pro- 
fession, there are two paths open. The one is the beaten one, full 
of weeds, crooked ways, and cross-fences, in the form of adhesion 
to old ideas and old ways. We may select this and seek to make it 
better, to clean up the rubbish and let in daylight, so that truth 
and right may have an opportunity to develop. This path may be 
likened to a man who would rebuild and remodel an old house, 
which he finds entirely unsuited to his desires and to the times. 
This is generally found to be a very costly method. In reference 
to the establishment of veterinary schools in this country, fortu- 
nately for us, no such necessity exists. The old, to be culled over, 
is all to be found in the older countries. Why, then, should we 
begin where they began, as these Iowa, Harvard, and Pennsylvania 
authorities are about to do ? Why not first take time to " look be- 
fore we leap," and only begin when we have found out not only 
where they now are, and accepting the best of that, but, cleared from 
all their rubbish, endeavor to start with those advancements toward 
which the best Continental schools are tending as fast as their anti- 
quated incumbrances will allow? This is the other plan, and the 
only one which the people of this country should pursue. That I 
am an idealist is willingly admitted, but that I am " visionary " is 
about as wide from the mark as possible. Every man who desires 
to lead, must not only of himself do the best he is capable of, but 
he will never attain that point unless he has an ideal better which 
he is constantly aiming at. Who ever heard of a person, endeavor- 
ing to spring over a ditch, jumping for the immediate edge of the 
opposite shore? Truth is always ideal; we seek it continually. 
Having made one form our own, we turn our attention immediately 
in search of another. She is ever before us. Her history is more 
unwritten than written. Perfection is always before us. She is 
the guiding star, without which the human race would soon sink into 
barbarism again. The common ruts, if continually followed, lead 
on to, a. self -conceited nonentity, pomposity, and ignorance. They 
are always blocked up with false ideas and musty superstitions. 
Truth and' perfection are the twin sisters to clear this maze away. 
Truth and perfection are both extravagant, and by too many always 
declared visionary, impracticable. Their apostles have been cursed, 
hanged, and burned at the stake. They are the men who have made 
us what we are ; their lives and works constitute the history of the 
world. Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Jesus, Paul, Loyola, Luther, 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 421 

Spinoza, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, Knox ; the fathers of Ameri- 
can independence, Washington, Paine, Jefferson, Otis, Adams, and 
others ; Yesalius, Bichat, and Yirchow in medicine ; Darwin, Tyn- 
dall, Huxley, in science ; and the fathers of America's second inde- 
pendence, Garrison, Parker, Sumner, Whittier, and others, have all 
been condemned in their own day and generation as visionary, im- 
practical, extravagant ; and yet, one after the other, succeeding gen- 
erations have raised monuments to their memory and pronounced 
them most practical men. 

The first bugbear which threatens our purpose is to be sought 
in some secret meaning which is supposed to lie behind the word 
"national." It is assumed by some that I desire to put my hands 
in the public Treasury, and retire, to be the envy of the Kear- 
neyites, a " bloated bondholder." Others suppose that by the 
word " national " I mean a school endowed and controlled by the 
Government at Washington ; and they immediately see a whole 
mountain of political evils overclouding their vision. Beyond 
these views, no one seems yet to have proceeded, notwithstand- 
ing five years' public advocacy and repeated restating of these 
ideas. 

The only sense in which I have ever used the word national is 
in reference to a plan for a school which shall best serve the re- 
quirements of the central Government, the State governments, and 
the people individually, as if each one of these bodies were but a 
single individual whose entire interests were to be served. Any 
other definition of my meaning is but a perversion. 

One school for the nation is what I am advocating, until the 
necessities of the country shall require another. 

Nothing more need be said of the evils of private or State 
schools. It is to meet all these evils that I advocate one school. 
The work of this school should be as follows : 

1. To educate veterinarians who shall be equal, both to the de- 
mands of the State and the public. 

2. To supply a suitable number of qualified specialists who, in 
the event of an outbreak of contagious animal diseases, or a suspi- 
cious connection between those of animals and man, may proceed, 
at the order of the National Board of Health, or at the request of 
any State board, to the invaded district, and make there the neces- 
sary researches and observations. These persons should always oc- 
cupy the position of assistants, or tutors, at the school. 

3. It should be an institution at which all manner of feeding, 
inoculation, or other necessary experiments could be made, by 



422 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

which alone there is any hope for finally arriving at the causes of 
disease, or the means for their prevention. 

4. It should be an institution where carefully detailed experi- 
ments could be made with different kinds and mixtures, as food for 
animals, in their relation to their use as beef, pork, mutton, milk, 
etc., as food for human beings. 

5. It should be an institution which the Government could always 
use for any necessary purposes, or to which farmers or other persons 
could send suspected food, dead animals, or portions of the same, or 
other things in relation to their health, for experiment, research, or 
proper investigation. 

6. It should be an institution which would supply men properly 
educated to become veterinary teachers in the respective State agri- 
cultural schools. 

(a.) With relation to the veterinary instruction suitable to stu- 
dents at agricultural schools, it is my opinion that it should be lim- 
ited to anatomy and physiology of the domestic animals, hygiene 
and dietetics, horseshoeing, a good education in relation to the con- 
tagious animal diseases and their prevention, and forensic medicine, 
which means examination as to soundness, etc. All instruction in 
special pathology, or therapeutics, as well as surgery, is to be care- 
fully avoided, for it only leads to the increase of the already too 
extended number of empirics, or, what is still worse, quacks. 

7. It should supply the necessary number of veterinarians for 
State work of every kind. 

"While these are the principal demands which we have a right to 
make upon such an institution, there are many advantages connected 
with it which, although negatively stated heretofore, should now be 
repeated in a positive manner. 

While, in advocating one school for the nation, I do not deny 
the right of States to individual schools, yet I truly believe that 
if such a school is founded in correspondence to the plan herein 
stated, both State schools and private schools, chartered by States, 
must soon suffer a speedy death, if ever allowed even a moment's 
existence. 

In one school we have but one standard of education, and that 
the highest practicable. It may be argued that " opposition is the 
soul of progress." To which I answer that the opposition should 
be seated in the minds of the teachers, assistants, and tutors of the 
school, as well as its numerous graduates, all of which would tend 
to keep the school alive and active. 

By having a uniform course of study, and only one grade of 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 423 

graduation, the people have no difficulty in at once ascertaining as 
to who is an accredited man. 

Unless we have one form and grade of education for the whole 
country, it will be absolutely impossible to ever have any effective 
veterinary police, or to have any uniformity in the laws, or to meet 
the requirements set forth when considering this part of our subject. 
It is really a scientific question to decide, how all these ends can be 
met by one institution. Yet it is possible. The first question is, 
How can we have an institution, national in its purposes, yet free 
from the evils of American politics ? Naturally, it must receive its 
charter from the central Government. Unless the institution can 
serve the needs of the Government, it is absolutely useless. In dis- 
cussing " a national veterinary police code," I have shown the rela- 
tion of the government to the schools, and said that the Yeterinary 
Inspector-General of the United States should be a member of the 
board of trustees, and one of the board of examiners. This gives 
the Government a technical representative. If, however, such an 
officer is appointed by political nepotism, then the less he has to do 
with the school the better. He must be selected in the way I have 
said, or all our work is useless. 

I propose, then, that an association be formed and chartered, 
with the right to hold property, personal and real, to the amount of 
two million dollars ; and that said association be called the Na- 
tional Association for the Promotion of Yeterinary Science in the 
United States. The work of this association is at first to be limited 
to opening subscriptions for funds. In the earlier pages of this 
book we have endeavored to make our readers cognizant of the 
very near relation which exists between many animal diseases and 
human health. Every man and woman of means in this country, 
whose education will permit of their grasping the idea of preventive 
medicine, should contribute accordingly to the foundation of this 
institution. It is an object which should especially appeal to the 
self-interest of every breeder and owner of domestic animals in the 
country. The humanitarian, the enthusiastic friends of our domes- 
tic animals, those interested in the reform of animal transport, are 
all knocking at the wrong door, and endeavoring to push an almost 
immovable load up-hill without the aid of intelligent and highly 
educated veterinarians. 

The late Commodore Yanderbilt saw fit to endow a university. 
"We think a large veterinary institute an object which the country 
has much more need of than more universities at present. It seems 
strange that an object which should appeal at once to the generous 



424 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

spirit of every wealthy American should have been openly advocated 
for a period of more than five years without finding a single pub- 
lic supporter. The object is certainly noble ; the plan proposed is 
not visionary, for it has found able support from several medical 
men of eminence. Then why this apathy ? Is it because the vet- 
erinary profession has not upheld it ? There is no such thing as the 
veterinary profession in this country. There are a few isolated men 
of variable degrees of school education, but these all seem more 
afraid to tackle this subject, pro or con, than they would be of the 
"rinderpest," which they would not fear much, in all probability, 
as it would increase their yearly balances. Probably it is because 
there is no money in it. " Millions in it " is the only thing which 
could awaken a profession dead to all professional ambition, and 
without the first spark of a genuine scientific spirit. 

To form such an association, it is only necessary for a limited 
number of representative breeders and patriotic citizens to call a 
preliminary meeting at any of our large cities, there to draw up a 
preamble, and a few regulations calling a large public meeting at a 
later date. Hundreds of responsible men are interested in this 
undertaking, but all seem afraid to take the lead. Once having 
formed a permanent association, a board of trustees should be se- 
lected, so as to represent the great geographical sections of the coun- 
try, and for a period of ten years each. They should themselves 
select their own officers. The treasurer, who in the future should 
be an officer of the school, should be the only paid man ; the others, 
when all is going (if it ever will be), should receive only traveling 
expenses. There is one position in connection with such an associa- 
tion which will be replete with work, and that is the position of sec- 
retary. 

The locating of such an institution is a matter of immense im- 
portance. All things considered, it seems as if the city of Cincin- 
nati were especially indicated for this purpose. It is sufficiently 
central in every direction. It is large enough to furnish all the 
elements for a clinic. It seems to be more or less excluded from 
the contemptible jealousies which are occasionally cropping out be- 
tween our other large cities. While I am, in general, in favor of 
uniting such an institution with a university, our conditions seem 
rather to warrant us in keeping it an entirely separate institution. 
Such a connection might save a little in expense, by the teachers 
in several of the natural sciences being taken from the university ; 
but, on the other hand, the natural sciences, with the exception of 
botany, need to be peculiarly adapted to the use of veterinarians ; 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 425 

and as this work is still scarcely begun in any country, it is suffi- 
ciently indicated that we should endeavor to found an institution 
where they may be especially cultivated ; and, in selecting teachers, 
we must endeavor to obtain men of real genius. It must never be 
forgotten that we are not advocating a school for the production of 
horse-doctors, but, on the contrary, an institution for the develop- 
ment of those natural sciences which serve as the foundation for 
the study of medicine, the development of veterinary science in all 
its branches, and the education of scientifically qualified veterinary 
practitioners. 

The school must have the scientific spirit permeating all its work. 
It is because our medical schools are almost all entirely wanting in 
this particular that we have never produced a great medical scien- 
tist. We have developed the hand-work by borrowing the elements 
upon which it is founded from Germany and France. "What we 
want is American science as well as American practice. Science 
can never be developed except with state support. Sporadic up- 
heaval may be witnessed from private endeavor, as may be seen in 
England. It is absolutely necessary that the theoretic and practical 
in a medical school be permeated, saturated with this scientific 
spirit. No one who has not lived in such a spirit can realize how it 
gradually stimulates even the drones among the students. It is like 
the deacon and his wonderful trotters — the spirit of emulation grad- 
ually extended to the deacon also. The students soon begin to think 
and seek the causes of things ; researches, experiments, take more of 
their thoughts, and, instead of learning practice by rote, they begin 
to feel the desire to improve it, even as students. " The reason 
why " becomes an innate part of their being. Unless this spirit is 
shared by every teacher of such a school, in so much is it a failure. 
Only men having this spirit, and the practical ability to let it be 
seen in their works, are suited to be teachers. 

Such an institution as we have in mind requires considerable 
land, ten acres not being by any means too much. It will require 
stables for hospital use — isolated stables to quarantine animals in- 
fected with, suspected of, or kept for experimental purposes, with 
contagious diseases. It will require a special dog-hospital, also a 
special stable for the use of animals to be kept for feeding and other 
experiments. It will also require buildings for the residences of the 
teachers, servants, and pupils, as well as for the different educational 
purposes. 

In order that such an institution may fully fill all the demands 
we have a right to make upon it, great circumspection must be ex- 



426 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

ercised with respect to every move we make. While there is no way 
by which we can prevent State schools, and, if we may jndge from 
the past, private schools also, so long as our legislators are as igno- 
rant and heedless as they now are with reference to the proper 
relations of our medical institutions, by which I mean schools, 
practitioners, etc., we must make every effort to discourage their 
establishment. We may be certain that the young veterinary aspi- 
rants will go to that school which gives them the best education at 
the least expense. There is but one way in which a national school 
can hope to kill out private and State institutions of a similar char- 
acter. That way is to make it free to the students. By free I mean 
conditionally. I would have the annual fees, including everything, 
fixed at one hundred dollars, payable semi-annually. Each and 
every student should be obliged to pay them. But the conditions 
upon which each student may receive his education free, should be 
that all students who pass a successful examination at the first trial 
for the diploma of the institute should receive back all the fees paid 
in, inclusive of the examination fee during the course of study re- 
quired by the school ; any students failing in their first examina- 
tion, or retiring from it, except for sickness, or not completing the 
course, to forfeit all fees paid in. I am a bitter enemy to the prize 
system, which selects one, two, or three students, who may acci- 
dentally pass a better examination than their fellows ; but the above 
plan, being open to all, is certainly in the interest of parents and 
students, and should offer an extra stimulus to study. The prize 
system is degrading, for an examination is seldom a just criterion of 
the competing student's ability ; the parrot students generally win 
this prize, while the men of character and individuality win those 
of the world. A school examination is a hard thing for men of 
real character. It is generally too much book, and not enough in- 
clined to draw the real knowledge from the student. To carry out 
this plan, and pay the expenses of the school in the manner which 
we shall in part detail, requires a large interest-bearing fund, but 
the income to the country at large will more than justify the invest- 
ment. 

The course of study must extend over four full years, of ten months 
each, with an interval at the Christmas holidays. This may seem 
excessive, in comparison to the two-session course of many Ameri- 
can medical schools, but a proper education, an education equal to 
the demands of the time, and in the spirit of modern science, can 
not be obtained in less. While, at the period of my studies at Ber- 
lin, the full session was limited to three years, mine was the last class 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 427 

to graduate at the end of three years ; I found it necessary to remain 
nearly a year longer to fill up the vacuums, which were perceptible 
to myself, in my education to fit myself for the work I had under- 
taken, and to feel warranted in claiming that I really had an edu- 
cation with a scientific foundation; and had not my health and 
means both been pretty well exhausted, I should have certainly add- 
ed a year more to my school-days. Still, they are not ended ; the 
real student is always at school, whether in his own laboratory, or 
busy about practice, or enjoying a vacation. The educated mind is 
never without material for study. A scarcity of immediate objects 
of interest is often necessary in order that time may be gained for 
skeptical reflection. The word " skeptic " is used in the sense of 
critical, not in an anti-religious sense, as unreflecting people seem 
always to think necessary. The same is true of the word " radical," 
which means " root," or one who endeavors to go to the root of a 
matter ; but the highly educated representatives of the American 
press seem to think it should only be applied to spiritualists, free- 
lovers, or other similar eccentricities of weak-minded men and 
women. Pardon these few digressive words. 

An inexcusable mistake of all veterinary schools, and many medi- 
cal as well, is, that the school-year for freshmen is arranged to begin 
in the fall. Every teacher that has had experience, and who makes 
a study of his work — that is, how he can best present his subjects to 
the students (and no other men should ever be teachers), if capable 
of making any practical observations upon the difficulties which 
students have to overcome — must realize that to jump them into the 
studies of a general first winter course, as they now are, without 
any preparation, is but a waste of time and source of anxiety to the 
student, and aggravation to the teachers. The time for students to 
enter upon the study of medicine should be fixed for about the mid- 
dle of March, and the four-years session should end at the same 
time. The studies of this first term, from March 15th to August 
1st, should be osteology, chemistry, physics, and botany. The man- 
ner in which osteology is at present taught in most schools is little 
more than a farce ; the student learns the bones, it is true, their pro- 
tuberances, muscular insertions, and cavities, but beyond this he 
seldom gets. Bones are indeed a dry subject. This is all wrong. 
There is no branch of medical study which can be made more inter- 
esting and instructive than this, and, unless it is taught in a truly 
scientific manner, the name might as well be stricken from the cur- 
riculum of a school. It should first begin with the development of 
bone-tissue in general, demonstrated by the teacher upon the board ; 



428 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

this will all be repeated in histology, if the school is a respectable 
one. The manner in which each bone develops, how the bone 
grows, how the tuberosities and cavities are formed, the comparative 
anatomy of each bone, its varying uses, and, what has not yet been 
iu vented, wooden or hard-rubber skeletons, with elastic muscles, to 
illustrate osteology, as well as myology. I am opposed to the teach- 
ing of elementary chemistry in medical schools ; this, elementary 
physics and botany, should all be placed in the matriculatory exami- 
nation ; but, so long as that is at present impossible, we must do the 
best we can, and give the students a very thorough education in 
chemistry and physics. With reference to the former, each theo- 
retic lecture should be repeated the next day by the students in the 
laboratory, so far as it had direct relation to the practical uses of the 
students. Theory must be made practical, or else it is not science. 
It is but words — empty words ! A teacher who has not the genius 
which enables him to apply the abstract sciences, such as chemistry 
or physics, to the practical needs of the students, is unfit to teach. 
In most medical schools this fact seems to be entirely lost sight 
of. Chemistry is taught as chemistry per se. Many a man is suited 
to teach chemistry for chemical students, but there are few who 
have the genius to apply it to the practical needs of medical 
students. To this end, the teacher of chemistry should have first 
studied medicine, and have graduated as an M. D., or veterina- 
rian, and then have studied and made a specialty of chemistry and 
physics. 

With reference to botany. A good knowledge of its elements, 
the classifications, and the determination of the species of plants, 
must be insisted on in the matriculatory examination, else much 
valuable time would be lost at the school. The botany taught at 
medical schools is entirely out of place. Students no longer need 
to go out in the woods to gather herbs. In pharmacognosy and 
materia medica the endeavor should be to make the student thor- 
oughly acquainted with the principal medicines in dried, crude, and 
prepared forms ; but the teaching in botany should be limited to 
vegetable anatomy and physiology, with microscopic practice, and 
a careful comparison of the structure and functions of the vegetable 
with those of the animal world. The students of to-day (and, I am 
sorry to say, many teachers) do not realize how this course opens 
the way to the study of the anatomy and physiology of the animal 
world. It not only opens the way, but gives one such an introduc- 
tion as to make the study of the latter branches doubly interesting. 

I will not critically consider the whole course of study, but will 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 429 

rather give a course of study to be extended over four years, as I at 
present look upon the question : 

First Session {Spring and Summer), March 15th to August 1st. — 
Introduction to the study of veterinary medicine, by the director ; 
osteology ; chemistry, inorganic, theoretical, and practical ; physics ; 
botany (theoretic, as described) ; zoology ; horseshoeing (practical). 

Second Session {Fall and Winter), October 1st to March 15th. — 
Zootomy * (lectures and practice) ; chemistry, organic, and practice ; 
materia medica and pharmacognosy ; history of veterinary medi- 
cine ; horseshoeing, theoretic, history. 

Third Session {Spring and Summer). — Physiology (part first) ; 
histology, with practice ; comparative anatomy and embryology ; 
materia medica ; toxicology ; exercise in chemical laboratory. 

Fourth Session {Fall and Winter). — Anatomy, lectures and prac- 
tice ; physiology (part second) ; nerve physiology ; dietetics ; hygi- 
ene ; breeding (theoretic, with especial regard to evolution) ; reviews 
by assistants of chemistry, materia medica ; comparative anatomy 
and physiology. 

At the end of this session the students are to be examined in 
the above branches. Students failing to pass, to be put back one 
year. 

Fifth Year {Spring and Summer). — General pathology (with 
sketch of the history of medicine) ; general therapeutics ; general 
surgical pathology ; special surgical pathology ; special pathology 
and therapeutics of the diseases of the domestic animals ; practice 
in pharmacy ; practice in writing prescriptions. 

Sixth Session {Fall and Winter). — Clinic, percussion and auscul- 
tation ; pathological anatomy, demonstrative and microscopic ; oper- 
ative surgery (theory and practice) ; special surgical pathology ; spe- 
cial pathology and therapeutics ; exterior (lectures on form and 
soundness) ; practice in pharmacy. 

Seventh Session {Spring and Summsr). — Clinic ; pathological 
anatomy, as above ; obstetrics (theory and practice) ; veterinary 
sanitary science and police (contagious animal diseases and their 
prevention) ; forensic medicine ; operative surgery (practice). 

Eighth Session {Fall and Winter). — Clinic ; physiology (part 
first) ; general pathology ; sanitary science and police ; forensic 
medicine ; meat and market inspection. 

The work of this last session should be to fasten as much as pos- 
sible the principles of medicine in the minds of the students, and 

* All lectures upon special branches should be introduced with a short sketch of the 
principal events in their development. 



430 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

give them time for reviewing. The members of the graduating 
class should also be allowed to oversee the students in the anatomi- 
cal laboratory — a certain number at a time — in order that they may 
have a final opportunity to refresh their minds in this important 
branch before appearing for examination. 

This plan of study is doubtless open to improvement, but I ven- 
ture to say that it is better than any at present followed. Its aim 
is to unite theory and practice to the fullest possible degree. 

At the end of the eighth session the students will appear for 
their final examination. Written examinations — with the exception 
of a portion of the clinical — are a farce. The aim of an examina- 
tion is to ascertain the real ability of the candidates. Originality 
of expression should be cultivated, and the teachers should endeavor 
to place the "parrots" or book - repeaters, where they belong. 
Grade examinations, "good," "better," "best," are another farce. 
The school should have but one standard — either a student passes 
a satisfactory examination, or it is pronounced unsatisfactory. 
The fate of the " first men in their classes " in the arena of the 
world is too often otherwise than that which is expected. All 
students passing an unsatisfactory examination should be put back 
one year, and forfeit all rights to the refunding of their fees for 
any part of the term. The director should signify the special lec- 
tures they must attend. 

A list of each year's graduates should be published in the school 
organ, as well as in the leading agricultural and sporting papers. 
The secretary of the Board of Health of the State from which each 
graduate comes, as well as the presiding officer of his native place, 
are to be notified of the candidate's graduation, which must be pub- 
lished in a public print of the place. All State boards of health 
should also receive an official list of each year's graduates. 

The writer would also seriously recommend the idea of endeav- 
oring to introduce into the country a more intelligent and trust- 
worthy class of grooms and coachmen, and to this end would suggest 
that the attendants in the stable be young men from fifteen to nine- 
teen years old, who can read and write ; that their pay be merely 
nominal, but enough to feed and clothe them, and that they have, 
from the superintendent of the clinic, lectures on treatment, on 
stable hygiene, and feeding, carefully illustrating the dangers of in- 
considerate and inopportune feeding ; from the lecturer on horse- 
shoeing, special general lectures on the care of the foot in health ; 
and from the lecturer on physiology, some general lectures on physi- 
ology. Such a course would, it seems to me, be nationally benefi- 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 431 

cial, and pay not only the hearers, in years to come, but the com- 
munity at large. These lectures should be open to the public at a 
nominal price, and gentlemen could have the privilege of sending 
their grooms or coachmen, and farmers of attending during the 
winter months. Thus, and only by carrying out a plan such as this, 
can we expect to build up our science in America. 

While I am so earnestly opposed to State schools, on account of 
the seeming impossibility of ever arriving at a uniform system of 
education for one and all of them, and a uniform grade of examina- 
tion, yet I do not assert that one school, or institution, is sufficient 
to cover the entire needs of the country. It can supply the required 
number of veterinarians, and it can do an immense amount of scien- 
tific research, but, to fulfill all the requirements which may be made 
in this direction, another form of institution is necessary. 

These are : research, experiment, stations, one in each State, at 
the service of and under the control of the State Board of Health, 
represented by the Chief Veterinary Inspector of the State. The 
value of such an institution to the people of each State can not well 
be appreciated in a country where no such thing exists. They 
should be small, neat stables, with a quarantine stable for infectious 
diseases ; they also should have a microscopical and chemical labora- 
tory, and each should have about two acres of land with them. In 
each State there should be meal inspectors, especially pork inspectors ; 
part of the duty of the State veterinarian should be to give a course 
of lectures each year upon these subjects, with the necessary demon- 
strations. In case this official could not be spared for such a pur- 
pose, the State should engage a competent man for the purpose from 
among the veterinarians in the State. 

With such an institution at its command, the Board of Health 
can constantly make feeding experiments with suspected milk, or 
with reference to tuberculosis of cows, or any other subject of im- 
portance to the people of the State. Without such an institution 
at its command, the hands of such a board are more or less tied. 

The National School should be at the command of the National 
Board of Health, or National Inspector- General, for similar purposes. 

The Teacheks. 

Sooner or later " civil service reform " has got to be introduced 
into our higher institutions of learning, as well as the Government. 
With reference to the institution we are considering, it can not and 
will not ever be successful if its teachers are selected and rewarded 
as such persons now are in this country. With reference to the se- 



432 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

lection of the first corps of teachers, were the school in readiness, I 
must confess I am myself somewhat at a loss what course to pursue. 
Still, I think that the competitive method in vogue in France, which 
must be adopted in all future cases, could also be made available 
here by giving public notice in this country, France, Germany, and 
England, of the chairs to be filled, said notice to be given at least 
nine months before the competition is to take place. In addition, 
the duties, accommodations, and remuneration should all be dis- 
tinctly declared. Foreigners should be allowed a certain fixed sum 
for traveling expenses. Another plan would be to select a com- 
mittee of three and send them on a search ; but this is really im- 
practicable, in my opinion. 

As opposed as Americans have ever been to the pensioning sys- 
tem, it must be adopted in the scientific and higher schools of this 
country before we can hope to make any progress in science. Mod- 
erate pay during active life, and a fair pension for themselves or 
their immediate family for a fixed period, and under fixed conditions, 
is the only plan upon which we can ever hope to control the real 
geniuses among scientists for educational purposes. There are but 
very few men of original genius who would not gladly sacrifice all 
hope of great earthly reward, and who would most joyfully devote 
their whole services to the State, were they only secured a comfort- 
able living during the active period of their lives, and a just pension 
to themselves when old or worn out, to be secured to their widows 
during life, and proportionately to minor children until sixteen 
years of age. Americans may " kick against (these) pricks " all they 
please ; come to it they will and must, be it anti- American or not. 
There are a great many things that a bigoted and ignorant Ameri- 
canism at present pronounces " anti- American " which a more intel- 
ligent and liberal future will adopt. It is not a support for laziness 
which we are demanding. It is the just rewards for genius. Every 
man of any education and liberality knows that most men of true 
scientific genius are scarcely fit to take care of themselves so far as 
monetary matters go. They have no time for such trifles. The 
costs in the end to the State, or to the association, which in this case 
will have to assume them, will not exceed those which would accrue 
from higher salaries during active life. Residences for the teachers, 
servants, and pupils should be found on the grounds. For the two 
former they should be free ; for the latter at a reasonable rent. 
Every teacher should be retired and pensioned when sixty years of 
age, no matter how active he may still be, and his place filled by 
young power. Every vacancy must be filled by public competition 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 433 

of the candidates before the teachers as a body, and some representa- 
tive members of the board of trustees. It must never be forgotten 
that genius for research united to great knowledge is not sufficient 
to constitute a man a teacher suitable to the young (or old). Genius 
for teaching, enthusiasm in teaching, and ability to apply one's 
knowledge practically, is an absolute necessity. Without this ability 
the most gifted genius is useless to a school as a teacher, however 
valuable he may be to the country at large as an original investi- 
gator. We must endeavor, to the best of our ability, to obtain men 
uniting these three qualifications to a high degree. 

The Students. 

On account of the great extent of this country, and the variation 
existing in the different States with regard to the standard of differ- 
ent schools bearing similar names, a matriculatory examination will 
be an absolute necessity. This should extend to a thorough exami- 
nation in all English branches, which a graduate of a high-school 
should have perfected himself in, as well as a knowledge of Latin 
grammar, and ordinary translations. As to Continental languages, 
there is no doubt that a knowledge of German, especially, and 
French, is more indispensable to the veterinarian than to the medi- 
cal practitioner. While much of the best foreign literature is soon 
translated for the benefit of the latter, the veterinarian has to wait 
years, and loses much of it altogether. It is impossible for the Ameri- 
can veterinarian who does not read these two languages to estimate 
the great difference which exists between the German and Trench 
reviews and those of England. As to the American, they are scarcely 
worthy of the name. Again, a good rudimentary knowledge oi 
zoology, chemistry, physics, and botany is absolutely necessary to 
the young student entering upon the study of medicine ; without 
this he is constantly feeling his way in the dark. Each applicant 
must be at least eighteen and not over twenty-five years of age. 
Not every youth is fitted either to become a veterinary or medical 
practitioner. 

As I am now drawing my " Buchlein" to a close, I may be al- 
lowed the liberty of ending it with a few remarks upon the general 
principles of education, which I hope will not be without interest, 
and perhaps benefit, to the reader. 

The ground covered by the word education is covered by but 
one other, and that is life. From the day of birth until we pass 
away beyond earthly scenes we are in a constant process of educa- 
tion. The history of the rise, progress, and development of educa- 

28 



434 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

tion is the history of man. Commerce and intercourse have been 
the two great factors. Education includes marriage, parentage, and 
all life's responsibilities within its limits. Solemn subject, which 
never ends but with life ! Subject — the beginning of which is so 
subtile that no man dare indicate the moment when the first reflective 
brain-action begins, other than that it begins with the worldly life 
of the individual. It is the attribute of all the higher forms of ani- 
mal life, differing only in degree and quality. The so-called in- 
stincts are not alone the attributes of the lower animals ; man has 
them also. They may be defined as action, which follows so quickly 
on thought that thought and action, cause and effect, are not, even 
by the individual, to be distinguished from one another. This re- 
mark has no reference to those intellectual peculiarities which dis- 
tinguish mankind from the lower animals. No action takes place 
in the animal organism without the irritation of specific nervous 
centers. Hunger is among the attributes which we enjoy in com- 
mon with the lower animals. The attempt to stay it is not instinct- 
ive in the lower animals any more than with man. The manner of 
staying it is different. In both species it is dependent upon a cer- 
tain form of irritation of the trophic nerve-endings in the stomach 
(perhaps intestines also), which is transmitted to certain centers in the 
brain, and irritates them, causing reflection (in lower animals as well 
as in man), and, as a natural result, the seeking for food. 

There rules in the community an idea that the different grades 
of intelligence — the so-called " gifts " (illustrated by the expression 
" that one person is more gifted than another," one animal possessing 
a greater development of its instincts than another) — are something 
special ; some mysterious, spiritual force or forces, which such organ- 
isms have received from the Creator. They seem to entirely overlook 
the true conditions which lead to these differences. These differences 
are founded upon variations in the anatomical structure of the centers 
of intelligence in different individuals. It is not known whether 
chemical differences in the elements forming these centers are pres- 
ent or not ; the anatomical variations, while axiomatically true, have 
never as yet been demonstrated. This work belongs to the science 
of the future. Changes in the anatomical structure of the nervous 
centers of intelligence are immediately followed by variations in the 
functions of these parts, and finally demonstrate themselves by 
changes in the phenomena produced, varying in degree according 
to the anatomical changes of the elements. 

The unit of animal, as well as vegetable life, is the cell. Beyond 
that we do not need to go. " Omnis cellula e cellula," says the 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 435 

great master of medicine, Yirchow. "While we look upon the cell 
as the unit of life, we have to pay our attention to the units of 
which it is composed. A cell is a mass of protoplasm, with or with- 
out an inclosing membrane, with or without a nucleus or nucleolus. 
Changes in this protoplasm cause variations in the functions of the 
cell. The work of the cell, the part it takes in the animal or vege- 
table economy, is dependent upon the composition — molecular rela- 
tions and chemical nature — of its protoplasm. This is the consti- 
tution of the cell. If the constitution is normal, the functions of 
the cell are normal. If the relations and nature of any of the ele- 
ments vary to any great degree, so that the influences of the varia- 
tions, on the part of one or a group of cells, can not be equalized by 
the action of the others, then the functions of the cell become ab- 
normal to a corresponding degree. Abnormality can only take 
place in three directions — viz., a plus, a minus, and an entire cessa- 
tion of functional activity. The sum of the cellular functions con- 
stitutes life. The variable phenomena of life, in different individuals 
of one and the same family, are invariably dependent upon varia- 
tions in the anatomical relations, or in the protoplasm of which the 
cells are composed, or in those organs in which such differences are ob- 
servable. This doctrine may be traced in the early medical writings. 
We find it intimated by the grand Greek, Hippocrates, the father 
of medicine. His four humors — blood, black gall, white gall, and 
mucus — gave rise to the constitution of the individual. The tem- 
peraments were dependent upon the relations of the humors to one 
another. The cell being considered as a unit, an indefinite number 
of these units, collected together for one purpose, form an organ, a 
greater unit ; and the union of a certain number of these larger 
units, each with its special functions, each with its work to do for 
itself, for its own existence, as well as work to do for the benefit of 
each of the organs united with it, constitutes the functions of that 
complex unit — if I may be allowed the term — the organism. Con- 
sidered as a unit, the organism does not differ from the cell. Its 
constitution is dependent upon the anatomical relations and chemical 
composition of its elements. Its functions are dependent upon their 
normal relation to each other for their perfect completion. Its tem- 
perament upon the same. Man's organism has work to do to keep 
itself in condition, as well as its part to keep the machine (unit) in 
existence, which we call humanity. 

The diversity of intellectual "gifts" is neither special curse nor 
special blessing. It is based upon variations in the structural rela- 
tions, molecular proportion, or chemical conditions of the different 



436 TEE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

nervous centers situated in the brain. Cheerfully admitting that this 
is a priori reasoning, yet I do not lose hope that the investigators 
of some future day will be able to discover and describe some of 
these changes. "Why one child is born brilliant and another weak 
in intellect, from the same parents, and, so far as we know, under 
the same conditions, is not dependent upon punishment from God, 
but upon variations in the molecular construction, or chemical com- 
ponents (?) of the protoplasm of the cells, or upon anatomical va- 
riations of a coarser kind. The causes of these variations are gen- 
erally present at the moment of the fructification of the ovum of the 
mother or in the sperm of the father, or are due to influences which 
are exerted upon the foetus while being carried by the mother. 
The elements of these nervous centers in such conditions do not 
suffer such marked changes that we have been able to discover them, 
although it is true that exact investigation in this direction is but 
in its infancy. In extreme cases, variations in cranial formation 
may be present, but they are not necessary; nor do they occur 
when loss of intellect or disturbances take place during life from 
over-exertion, shock, or other causes ; yet, in such cases, we must 
assume that changes have taken place in the active elements of those 
centers in the brain, a disturbance of which is indicated by the ab- 
normal phenomena which have attracted our attention. 

Every child is a unit — an organism composed of a certain num- 
ber of small units, the organs, which themselves are composed of 
untold numbers of still smaller units, the cells. The normal rela- 
tions and actions of all these parts regulate the constitution of the 
child. The functions of the brain do not differ from this rule; 
they are dependent upon its anatomical structure in part or as a 
whole. It is impossible to make a child anything different intellectu- 
ally than this anatomical structure of the drain will allow. This 
is, however, somewhat dependent upon the relations of the brain to 
the other parts of the body. Incomplete action of one or the other 
of the important organs may, and does frequently, lead to changes 
of importance in the brain, but in their nature so subtile as to escape 
our present means of observation. "While the brain functions of 
the child are in reality thus limited, the limits are of such a nature 
that in the normal child they are never attained. They will answer 
all the demands which can be made upon them, but the result is 
always dependent upon their structure and appositional relations. 
Why one child will be a veterinarian or a breeder of animals, another 
a merchant, another a seaman, or a minister, or a student of some 
one of the natural sciences, against the earnest will and wishes of its 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 437 

parents, is neither dependent on " pure cussedness " nor upon any 
special influence of the devil or any of his agents, nor upon obsti- 
nacy or ill-will, as many parents suppose, but upon fixed and un- 
changeable anatomical conditions in its brain. The same is true of 
many unfortunates who from early childhood develop a tendency 
to destroy and torture animal life, and who sometimes bring up as 
murderers. The causes of such conditions are in a measure at pres- 
ent beyond our knowledge. They have been undoubtedly strength- 
ened by heedless marriage. Marriage is indeed a solemn thing ; 
the world scarcely realizes how solemn. Marriage, as in general 
conducted, is a senseless thing. It is dependent upon fancy ; upon 
certain supposed affinities, which do not exist save in the unreflect- 
ing minds of excited lovers. Love itself is based upon certain centers 
in the brain. Love and sensuality have no relation or connection 
with one another. The thing called love, which at best is but mere 
fancy, may exist, but the genuine article is entirely free from it. 
The situation of the two centers is widely separated. Some day 
mankind will instigate as careful investigations into the pedigree of 
each other with relation to inherited diseases as they do now in 
endeavoring to trace a connection to some broken-down sprig of 
Continental snobocracy. Some day we shall exercise as much care 
in selecting our partners as we do now in selecting animals for breed- 
ing. The purpose of marriage is to continue the race. For no 
other purpose are we made male and female. The same is true of 
every member of the animal kingdom. Tubercular consumption is 
not only increasing in extension, but the average age at which such 
people die is decreasing in the human family. We charge it all to 
the changeableness of our climate. The climate, the irritations of 
life, are simply sufficient causes to set the disease in motion. The 
true cause is to be sought in the weak lung-tissues which we trans- 
mit to our children. This weakness has been constantly and igno- 
rantly increased at the expense and misery of the children produced. 
We talk about our boasted civilization. The breeders of cattle know 
this f actj and exclude from breeding animals which, were they hu- 
man beings, would marry if they took a fancy. Were they to do 
this, they would do what humanity does for itself — condemn its chil- 
dren to lives of misery and an early grave. How does the medical 
profession deport itself toward this question ? Is it true to the sci- 
entific spirit of preventive medicine ? No — a thousand times no ! 
Its members marry as heedlessly and headlessly as the people. Few 
members of it dare enter a family and warn young couples, intend- 
ing to marry, of their duties and the dangers to which they are un- 



438 THE MEANS OF PKEVENTIOtf. 

questionably going to subject their children. Were children not 
the result of marriage, it would then make no difference. The 
Church " Out-Herods Herod." Her ministers neither set a becom- 
ing example, nor do they warn, as prophets of the true God, the 
people of their duties in this regard. 

The purpose of marriage (natural) is to produce children. " So 
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he 
him ; male and female created he them." 

" And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, 
and multiply, and replenish the earth." * 

The science of parentage is an undeveloped branch of universal 
science. It is still awaiting the appearance of its first prophet. Its 
primers are as yet unwritten. Man scarcely knows the meaning of 
the first letter of its alphabet. It is the science par excellence. All 
others sink into insignificance in comparison with it. They all 
form but stepping-stones to its development. Thousands and thou- 
sands of years old, yet cultivated 'man does not Jcnow enough to 
marry. The real duties of parentage are still too much for hu- 
manity to bear and faithfully carry out. 

Physical fitness is the indispensable necessity. The " affinities" 
(an inexact term), a matter of secondary importance. Respect for 
each other's intellectual capabilities, and interest in the life-work of 
each other, is a far better foundation for a true marriage than the 
fancy mistakenly called love, which now, too frequently, leads to 
it. In every child, soon after birth, the elements of these charac- 
ter-centers in the brain begin to assume a certain fixity of form, 
which, . under normal conditions, gradually increase with the years. 
This fixity in the elements of the centers referred to gives occasion 
to the idiosyncratic ability of the individual. This point is the pole, 
the center around which the entire personality of the individual is 
to revolve during life. Its development, the ultimo of the science of 
jjarentage. The study of it, by means of its developing phenomena, 
the so-called " tastes " of the child, the imperative duty of every 
parent and every teacher of youth. It is the objective point upon 
which each parent should fix his or her attention from the day of 
birth to that of the maturity of each child. It is the magnetic needle 
which Nature places in each child to indicate to parents the course 
they should pursue in the education of the child. The development 
of this one point is not, however, the single duty of parents in di- 
recting the education of a child ; but, like a skillful general, who 
supports his crack corps in a desperate attack with all his other 

* Gen. i, 27, 28. 



A NATIONAL VETERINARY SCHOOL. 439 

forces, so must parents support this special brain, intellectual affinity 
of a child, for a certain occupation in life, by the most complete and 
studied education in other branches, so that in every way its strong- 
est point is well supported by collateral education. Such a child is 
well fitted to fight the battle for existence when the years to begin 
it come on. Many and many a gifted child has been made a good- 
for-nothing man, " a rolling stone," from the ignorance or stubborn- 
ness of parents who had not sense enough to know their duty, but 
believed in the doctrine, which has cursed more men than it has 
ever blessed, that the child must bend to the will of the parents. 
A one-sided education is a poor thing. It too frequently leaves the 
unfortunate man deeply buried in the " slough of despond." This 
most earnest study of the developing characteristics of a child is the 
imperative duty of parents. The child is not the property of the 
parents, to be used either as a toy, an ornament, or a means to per- 
sonal gratification. It is not an object belonging to parents to be 
bent to their wills. On the contrary, it is a trust received from 
Nature to be sacredly guarded. It is an individual whose develop- 
ing will is to be respected as its peculiar and inherent right, but 
which is also to be studied, directed, and the lesson of self-control 
gradually taught it, so that it may be fitted for the work of life. 
Morals are not " gifts from God " ; they are the results of experience. 
The comprehension of right can only develop with the intellect, and 
the broader the latter is developed, the more sharply defined its action, 
the more exact will be the child's idea of right. Right and wrong 
are at first in no way moral sentiments to the child. They are at 
first founded in a degree of fear or love of parents ; and the child's 
opposing actions, looked upon by parents too frequently as the re- 
sults of ill-will, are but the gradually developing will, individuality 
of the child, coming into collision with the wills, it should be with 
the matured judgment, of the parents. The gradual development 
of this will in a proper direction is the highest duty of parents. It 
is not to be controlled by them, but directed. The child is to learn 
that the will of its parents — which is its first idea of moral law — is 
to be followed with trust, not fear. He is to learn that it saves him 
from many evil consequences, until, by the development of his own 
intellect, he becomes gradually able to distinguish between a right 
and a wrong peculiar to himself, and the relation of his own organ- 
ism to his surroundings, as well as the relation of each part to the 
other parts of which it is made up. The right and wrong of an in- 
telligent and developing understanding gradually takes the place of 
a conflict between — to the child — non-comprehended forces and the 



440 THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. 

matured understanding of the parents. The aim of education is to 
prepare the child so that it may' take care of itself in the struggle 
for existence. This axiom answers a question which many are ask- 
ing, though but few seem able to answer. How many children may 
a couple generate ? The answer is, JVb more than their means will 
allow them to fully educate for this struggle for existence. Many- 
persons, who unfortunately marry without the least idea of their 
new duties, are not fitted to have any children. Their own parents, 
having been unsu'ited to this noblest of duties, have transmitted 
their own incapacity to their children. "Yerily, the sins of the 
fathers are visited upon the children" in more ways than we at 
present are aware of. 

Education ! What is it % What form does it take ? In my 
opinion, education has three forms. First, the preparatory educa- 
tion of the school and college days. Second, the so-called " cultiva- 
tion " which is the result of one's general reading. Both of these 
forms are but gleanings from the work of others. Third, educa- 
tion proper, or that which the individual works out of himself by 
reflection upon what he has read, observed, and heard. It will be 
at once seen, and daily experience proves it, that a cultivated man 
is not necessarily an educated one ; nor is every educated man a cul- 
tivated one, although this exception is more rarely the case than 
the former. 

We often read in the daily papers that the public schools of the 
present day are too much inclined to develop philosophers, and not 
enough toward practical ends. It would be a blessing indeed did 
they seek to produce good, clear, radical (not in the sense of igno- 
rant newspaper writers) thinkers. A philosopher is one who thinks 
deeply upon any subject. He is quite frequently found, in a crude 
form, shoveling coal or pegging shoes. The polished form sits often- 
er in the professor's chair. The diamond is frequently spoiled in 
the polishing. So it is with many crude but sharp thinkers. When 
polished, the clearness is lost behind a multitude of words. Read- 
ing and writing by no means constitute an education. People seem 
to think they do, however. They are but the means. Ability to 
think logically is the attribute of an educated man. A foolish per- 
son may be taught to read and write, but no one would dare say 
he is educated. They lack the one pearl of price — the ability to 
think ; but the capability to read and write greatly increases the re- 
flective abilities of an otherwise crude thinker. It is the essential 
quality failing in our present humanity. The occasional individual 
thinks, the masses never. One would suppose, judging from per- 



A NATIONAL VETEKINARY SCHOOL. 441 

sonal observation, that the ability to think must have been one of 
the lost arts. Our aim should be to create good, logical thinkers — 
men capable of observing closely, and drawing radical conclusions. 
On that depends not only their individual success, but the advance- 
ment of our country as a whole. Let us, then, all do our part in 
pushing forward such a work. Among other things to this pur- 
pose, none is more needed than a national institute for the scientific 
education of veterinarians and the other purposes mentioned in this 
book. 



GEKEKAL INDEX. 



A PAGE 

Absyrtus 228 

A national veterinary institute - 390, 419 

A national veterinary police system S67 

Agriculture, report of the Commissioner 

ot 209 

Albert, observations on tuberculosis in 

cattle 67 

American Government on trichuriasis. . . 19 
American pork, microscopic examination 

of.... 20 

more trichinous than European 26 

Anthrax 103, 348, 351 

history of. 103 

etiology of 106 

nature of inficiens 108 

outbreak and extension of Ill 

phenomena of 112 

pathological anatomy of 113 

prognosis 115 

diagnosis 115 

prevention 116 

treatment 117 

immunity from 117 

in man 1 21 

cause of, in man 121 

symptoms and course 122 

treatment of 1 24 

Anthracoid diseases 124 

Appeal to the citizens of Pennsylvania. . 405 

Aryans, respect for animal life by the . . . 211 

Aristotle, views of, on animal diseases. . 222 

Austria, the veterinary school of 280 

B 

Bacillus suis 42 

Bacteria 79 

Leeuwenhoek on 79 

classification of. 80 

Miiller on 80 

Ehrenberg on 80 

Haeckel on 80 

Davaine and others on 80 



PAGE 

Bacteria, distinction from inorganic sub- 
stances 84 

development of. 85 

dissemination of 86 

nutrition and respiration of 86 

cultivation of. 87 

reproduction of. 88 

action of 89, 94 

Bates, on cattle-diseases in Britain in 

1714 260 

Berlin, veterinary school at 322 

students at the 333 

regulations at the 334 

horse-abattoir at 155 

Board of health, work of a national 386 

Bollinger, on trichinae in American pork.. 27 

micrococci in hog-cholera 41 

on foot-and-mouth disease 55 

on bovine tuberculosis 65 

on anthrax Ill 

on rabies 141 

on chronic pulmonary glanders . . 166, 188 

Boerhaave 242 

Bojanus 314 

Bourgelat, Claude 265 

Bowditch, on trichinae 40 

on tuberculosis GO 

Brauell, on anthrax 104 

Brown, Sir Charles, on animal hospitals 

in India 264 

C 

Cattle, diseases of 52 

Cato, Marcus Portius 229 

Chabert, on anthrax 104 

Charaka, on the medical student 213 

Chicago Academy of Sciences, on trichi- 

nse 120 

Cholera, hog 41 

cause of. 41 

Koell on 42 

Spinola on 42 



444 



GENERAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

Cholera, hog, virulence of. 43 

influences of season and temperature 

on. 44 

period of incubation of 44 

symptoms of , 44 

pathological anatomy of. 47 

microscopic observations in 48 

diagnosis of 49 

prognosis in 49 

treatment of. 50 

prevention of 50 

losses from, in the United States 377 

Clater, on inoculation in pleuro-pneumo- 

nia 372 

Cobbold, on trichinae 3 

Cohn, cultivation-fluid of 87 

Columella, on contagium vivum 79 

work of. 230 

Commission to prevent animal diseases. . 383 

Constantine, Emperor, work of. 232 

Corlies, J. C, letter on pleuro-pneumo- 

nia 374 

D 

Damman, on trichinse 12 

Davaine, on anthrax 105 

Description of trichina 5 

Desmobacteria 83 

Decroix, on hippophagy 154 

Detmers, on hog- cholera 41 

Delafond, on anthrax 104 

Diseases of cattle 52 

Disinfection 364 

Dog, the diseases of the 137 

Dupuy, Alexis C 269 

E 

Education, first principles of 433 

Emphysema infectiosum 125 

Epidemics of trichuriasis 36 

Evilenburg, trichinae in Prussian pork. . . 16 
Ewart, etiology of anthrax 109 

E 
Feser, Professor, on emphysema infec- 
tiosum 125 

Munich veterinary school 308 

Fiedler, on trichinae 40 

Fleming, George, on foot-and-mouth dis- 
ease 54 

on losses from animal diseases in Eng- 
land 376 

on hydrophobia 144 

on glanders 162 

on British veterinary schools 403 

Foot-and-mouth disease, the 54, 347, 353 

France, veterinary schools of 264 

Fiirstenberg, on milk analysis 56 



PAGE 

G 

Gadsden, Dr., on glanders 176 

Galen, views of 228 

Gamgee, John, on Texas fever 130 

on pleuro-pneumonia in England 376 

Gerlach, Professor, life of 324 

on trichinae 9, 29 

on glanders 163, 188, 190 

on tuberculosis 62 

Germer, Dr., on trichuriasis at Erie, Pa. 37 

Germany, rinderpest in 344 

Glanders 159, 348, 357 

Rums on 160 

Ruini on 160 

Winter von Adlers Flugel on 160 

Lafosse, on 161 

Fleming, on 161 

Gerlach, on 163 

Roell, on 164 

Leisering, on 164 

chronic, Case 1 165 

chronic, Case II 167 

transmission to other animals 169 

geographical distribution of 169 

in the Franco-Prussian War 170 

in Hungary 170 

report of Massachusetts Cattle Commis- 
sion on 170 

letter of Dr. Lyman on 170 

letter of Massachusetts Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals on. 173 

letter of Dr. Liautard on 174 

letter of Dr. Gadsden on 176 

etiology of 178 

experiments with the blood in 182 

tenacity of the contagium in 183 

natural infection in 183 

disposition to 184 

immunity from 184 

phenomena of 185 

incubation in 185 

duration of. 185 

acute nasal 185 

pulmonary 187 

Bollinger, on pulmonary glanders .... 188 

pathological anatomy of. 189 

tubercle in 192 

infiltrations in 196 

gelatinous infiltrations in 197 

diagnosis of 202 

prevention of 202 

prognosis in 202 

in man 204 

etiology of 204 

acute, in man 206 

chronic, in man 207 

Gurlt, Professor, work of 322 



GENERAL INDEX. 



445 



PAGE 

H 
Haubner, trephining sinuses of head in 

glanders 166 

Haller, work of 249 

on pleuro-pneumonia 250 

Hanover, the school at 304 

Harvard Veterinary School 404, 410 

Haveinann, on the French schools 368 

Hering, work of. 303 

Hermann, on rabies 142 

Hertwig, Professor, on foot-and-mouth 

disease 55 

work of. 323 

Hertwig, Dr. Hugo, horse-abattoir at 

Berlin 155 

Herr, on trichiniasis 17 

Heusinger, on anthrax 104 

Hiller, on trichiniasis 3 

Hilton, on trichiniasis 3 

Hippiatrique, Cours d' 161 

Hippocrates, views of 220 

the veterinarian 228 

Hippophagy 153 

History, the, of veterinary medicine .... 209 

Horse, the 153 

glanders in 159 

Hospitals, animal, in India 263, 264 

I 

Incubation, period of, in hog-cholera 45 

Infection 74 

Inoculation for pleuro-pneumonia 372 

K 

Kersting, Johann Adam, work of. 304 

Mink, quicksilver in milk 60 

Klopsch, trichiniasis 11 

Krabbe, glanders on the Island of Born- 
holm 179 

Kramer, trichiniasis , 9 

L 

Lafosse, flls, on glanders 161 

work of. 238 

Lafosse, the father 237 

Lancisi, on the cattle-plague 243 

Law, James, on hog-cholera 41, 48, 50 

Leidy, on trichiniasis 3 

Leuckart, on trichiniasis 10, 30 

Leisering, on trichiniasis 29 

on glanders 164 

Lesson taught by the medical institutions 
of the United States 402, 403 

European veterinary schools 403 

Letter on Harvard Veterinary School. . . 410 
Liautard, Dr., on glanders in New York. 174 

on inoculation in pleuro-pneumonia. . . 372 



PAGE 

Loring, Dr., on trichina? 18 

Lyman, Dr., on glanders at Springfield, 

Mass 170 

M 

Man, glanders in 204 

Manu, laws of. 216 

Massachusetts, report of Board of Health, 

on trichiniasis 20 

statute for the incorporation of medi- 
cal schools 397 

Mayer, cultivating fluid of 87 

Maladie du coit 348 

Medical schools in the United States 393 

Medicine, regulating the practice of 399 

Microbacteria 83 

Milk, analysis of 57 

Microscopic, the, examination of pork. . . 32 
Morley, John, on the murrain in Britain 

in 1717 361 

Mueller, Professor, trichinae in American 

hogs in Germany 18 

Mueller, Dr., on tuberculosis 61 

Munich, the veterinary school at 308 

i 
N 

Naegeli, on bacteria 81 

on disinfection 102 

O 
Objects which may be mistaken for tri- 

chinEe 85 

P 

Paracelsus 242 

Pasteur, cultivating fluid of 87 

Pasteur, on inoculation 119 

Payne, Dr. J. T., on trichiniasis 24 

Pennsylvania, appeal to the citizens of. . 405 

Philadelphia, veterinary school at 404 

Pleuro-pneumonia, views of Haller 250 

views of Professor Putz 259 

inoculation to prevent 372 

laws to prevent 348, 355 

Pollender, on anthrax 104 

Police system, a national veterinary 367 

Prevention, the means of 367 

Prussia, the veterinary institutions of. . . 321 
laws for the suppression of animal dis- 
eases 340 

Purpura in the horse 125 

E 

Babies in the dog 139 

in France 142 

phenomena of 148 

prevention of 152 

laws with reference to 34S, 361 



446 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Eauch, on trichuriasis 10 

Eats, trichinae in 30 

Eegulating the practice of medicine 399 

Eeich, tubercular meningitis in children. 66 
Eeport of the government of New Jersey 

on pleuro-pneumonia 368 

Einderpest, German laws for its preven- 
tion 341, 343, 344, 347 

Eoell, on glanders 164 

Euini, on glanders 160 

work of. 236 

Eufus, J., on glanders 160 

work of. 234 

S 

Scabies, laws to prevent 348 

Schimming, infection of the blood in 

glanders 182 

Schiitz, on gelatinous infiltration in gland- 
ers 197 

on atelectasis 198 

Southern hogs free from trichina? 25 

Spinola, on hog-diseases 42 

Spherobacteria 81 

State veterinary schools 415 

Stuttgart, veterinary school at 299 

Susruta, the medical student described by 215 

Sutton, trichuriasis at Aurora, Ind 37 

T 

Taenia saginata 53 

echinococcus 157 

Texas fever of cattle 129 

history of 129 

definition of. 130 

etiology of 133 

stages in 133 

phenomena of 134 

pathological anatomy 135 

microscopic examinations in 136 

prevention of. 137 

Toulouse, veterinary school at. 269 

Trichiniasis in man and animals 2 

Trichinse in fat-tissue 7 

in the various muscles 8 

intestinal 11 

dispersion of 13 

in other animals than the hog 14 

in swine 15 

European hogs 15 

American hogs examined in Europe . . 17 

in American pork 20 

Trichiniasis, the disease in hogs 28 

the disease in man 35 

symptoms 36 

Blackwell's Island 37 

Erie, Pa 37 

Brooklyn, L. 1 37 



PAGE 

Trichiniasis, the disease in man, Eoch- 

ester, N. Y 38 

Saxony, Germany 38 

on the Jordan 39 

ruling of a German judge with refer- 
ence to 37 

Tubercle in glanders 192 

Tuberculosis 61 

statistics 61, 71, 73 

experiments with reference to 62 

Turner, trichiniasis in Scotland 40 

V 

Varo, on contagium vivum 70 

Variola in sheep, laws to prevent 348, 360 

Valentine, on foot-and-mouth disease ... 55 

Vegetius 230 

Vesalius 242 

Veterinary medicine, history of. 209 

Veterinary schools, the establishment of. 263 

of France 264 

of Austria 280 

of Belgium 291 

of Eussia 294 

of Denmark. 296 

of Sweden 298 

of Germany 299 

at Stuttgart 299 

at Hanover 304 

at Munich 308 

of Prussia 321 

of Berlin 321 

Veterinary police system, a national. ... 367 

Veterinary institute, a national 390 

Veterinary schools of England 404 

at Philadelphia 404 

at Cambridge — Harvard 404 

State 415 

national 419 

course of study at 426 

teachers at 431 

students at 433 

Virchow, on trichinae in man 11 

on anthrax 104 

Virulence of virus in hog-cholera 43 

Voit, Professor, on veterinary schools. . . 319 

W 

Wagner, on trichiniasis 41 

Walz 300 

Welsh, Hon. J., on veterinary schools . . 405 

Winter von Adlers Flugel, on glanders . 160 

Wise, medicine in India 218, 263 

Wolstein, J. G 281 

Wortahet, trichiniasis on the Jordan 39 

Z 

Zenker, trichiniasis 10, 35 



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Treatise on Chemistry. 



H. E. ROSCOE, F. R. S., and 
C. SCHORLEMMER, F. R. S., 

Professors of Chemistry in the Victoria University, Owens College, Manchester. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 8vo. 

Vol. I.— Non-Metallic Elements. Price, $5.00. 

Vol. II.— Part I.— Metals. Price, $3.00. 
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ORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 8vo. 

Vol. III. — Part I. — The Chemistry of the Hydrocarbons and their 

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Vol. III. — Part II. — Completing the work. (In preparation.) 

"Of the 695 pages constituting this first moiety of the third and last volume of 
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B I LLROTH'S 

General Surgical Pathology and Therapeutics, 

IN FIFTY-ONE LECTITBES. 

A Text-hook for Students and Physicians. 
By Dr. THEODOR BILLROTH, 

Professor of Surgery in Vienna. 

Translated from the fourth German edition with the special permission of the author, 
and revised from the eighth edition, 

By CHARLES E. HACKLEY, A. M., M. D., 

Physician to the New York Hospital, Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. 



I vol., 8vo, 773 pages. Cloth, $5.00 ; sheep, $6.00. 



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" Lister's method of antiseptic treatment is referred to in various places, and other 
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Text-book of Human Physiology, 



DESIGNED FOE THE USE OF 



Practitioners and Students of Medicine. 
By AUSTIN FLINT, Jr., M. D., 

Professor of Physiology and Physiological Anatomy in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, 
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313 Engravings on Wood. 

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THE APPLIED ANATOMY OF THE 

NERVOUS SYSTEM ; being a Study of this Portion 
of the Human Body from a Stand-point of its General 
Interest and Practical Utility, designed for Use as a 
Text-Book and as a Work of Reference. 

By AMBROSE L. RANNEY, A. M., M. D., 

Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and late Lecturer on the Diseases of the Genito-Urinary 

Organs and on Minor Surgery in the Medical Department of the 

University of the City of New York, etc., etc. 

8vo. Profusely illustrated. Cloth, $4.00 ; sheep, $5.00. 

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eases." — Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 

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besides Hammond's work, no book relating to the nervous system has hitherto been pub- 
lished in this country equal to the present volume, and nothing superior to it is accessible to 
the American practitioner." — Medical Herald. 

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great value to the physician, but it is Dr. Ranney's merit to have collected these scattered 
items of interest, and to have woven them into an harmonious whole, thereby producing a 
work of wide scope and of correspondingly wide usefulness to the practicing physician. 

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addressed to those who can not afford the time for the' perusal of the larger text-books, and 
who must read as they run." — New York Medical Journal. 

" Professors of anatomy in schools and colleges can not afford to be without it. We rec- 
ommend the book to practitioners and students as well." — Virginia Medical Monthly. 

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" We earnestly recommend this work as one unusually worthy of study." — Buffalo Medi- 
cal and Surgical Journal. 

" A useful and attractive book, suited to the time." — Louisville Medical News. 

" Dr. Rauney has firmly grasped the essential features of the results of the latest study of 
the nervous system. His work will do much toward popularizing this study in the profes- 
sion. 

" We are sure that all our readers will be quite as much pleased as ourselves by its careful 
study." — Detroit Lancet. 

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dents, as well as to educated medical men." — Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 

" The work shows great care in its preparation. We predict for it a large sale among the 
more progressive practitioners." — Michigan Medical News. 

" We are acquainted with no recent work which deals with the subject so thoroughly at 
this ; hence, it should commend itself to a large class of persons, not merely specialists, bus 
those who aspire to keep posted in all important advances in the science and art of medi- 
cine." — Maryland Medical Journal. 

" This work was originally addressed to medical under-graduates, but it will be equally, 
interesting and valuable to medical practitioners who still acknowledge themselves to be 
students. It is to be hoped that their number is not small." — New Orleans Medical and 
Surgical Journal. 

" We think the author has correctly estimated the necessity for such a volume, and wc 
congratulate him upon the manner in which he has executed his task. 

" As a companion volume to the recent works on the diseases of the nervous system, it is 
issued in good time." — North Carolina Medical Journal. 

" Dr. Ranney has done his work well, and given accurate information in a simple, read- 
able style." — Philadelphia. Medical Times. 



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THE ANATOMY OF VEKTEBRATED 

ANIMALS. 

By THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, LL.D., F.R.S. 
1 vol., 12mo. Illustrated. 431 pages. Cloth, $2.50. 

" The present work is intended to provide students of comparative anatomy -with a con- 
densed statement of the most important facts relating to the structure of vertebrated animals 
which have hitherto been ascertained. The Vertebrata are distinguished from all other ani- 
mals by the circumstance that a transverse and vertical section of the body exhibits two 
cavities completely separated from one another by a partition. The dorsal cavity contains 
the cerebro-spinal nervous system ; the ventral, the alimentary canal, the heart, and usually 
a double chain of ganglia 2 which passes under the name of the ' sympathetic' It is prob- 
able that this sympathetic nervous system represesents, wholly or partially, the principal 
nervous system of the Annulosa and Mollusca. And, in any case, the central parts of the 
cerebro-spinal nervous system, viz., the brain and the spinal cord, would appear to be un- 
represented among invertebrated animals." — The Author. 

" This long-expected work will be cordially welcomed by all students and teachers of 
Comparative Anatomy as a compendious, reliable, and, notwithstanding its small dimen- 
sions, most comprehensive guide on the subject of which it treats. To praise or to criticise 
the work of so accomplished a master of his favorite science would be equally out of place. 
It is enough to say that it realizes, in a remarkable degree, the anticipations which have been 
formed of it ; and that it presents an extraordinary combination of wide, general views, with 
the clear, accurate, and succinct statement of a prodigious number of individual facts." — 
Nature. . 

THE ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRA- 

TED ANIMALS. 

By THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, LL. D , F. R. S. 

1 vol., 12mo. Illustrated. 596 pages. Cloth, $2.50. 

"My object in writing the book has been to make it useful to those who wish to become 
acquainted with the broad outlines of what is at present known of the morphology of the 
Invertebrata ; though I have not avoided the incidental mention of facts connected with 
their physiology and their distribution. On the other handj I have abstained from discuss- 
ing questions of etiology, not because I underestimate their importance, or am insensible 
to the interest of the great problem of evolution, but because, to my mind, the growing 
tendency to mix up etiological speculations with morphological generalizations will, if un- 
checked, throw biology into confusion." — From, Preface. 



THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF 

THE DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 

By A. OHAUVEAU, 

Professor at the Lyons Veterinary School. 

Second edition, revised and enlarged, with the co-operation of S. Arloing, late 
Principal of Anatomy at the Lyons Veterinary School ; Professor at the Toulouse 
Veterinary School. Translated and edited by George Fleming, F. R. G. S., M. A. I., 
Veterinary Surgeon, Royal Engineers. 

1 vol., 8vo, 957 pages. With 450 Illustrations. Cloth, $6.00. 

" Taking it altogether, the book is a very welcome addition to English literature, and 
great credit is due to Mr. Fleming for the excellence of the translation, and the many addi- 
tional notes he has appended to Chauveau's treatise." — Lancet (London). 

" The descriptions of the text are illustrated and assisted by no less than 450 excellent 
woodcuts. In a work which ranges over so vast a field of anatomical detail and description, 
it is difficult to select any one portion for review, but our examination of it enables us to 
speak in high terms of its general excellence. . . ." — Medical Times and Gazette (London). 



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